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THE LIVING PULPIT, 


on 


EIGHTEEN SERMONS 


BY EMINENT LIVING DIVINES 


OF 


THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH . 


WITH 


A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOR, 


BY GEO. W. BETHUNE, D.D. 


• 
EDITED AXD PUBLISHED 


BY REV. ELIJAH WILSON. 


SEVENTH EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 


FOR SALE BY WM. S. M ARTIE N, 


No. 144 CHESTNUT STREET. 


AND BY SMITH & ENGLISH, 36 NORTH SIXTH STREET. 


18 5 7. 


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RINTED BY C. SHERMAN & SON. 



CONTENTS. 



PACIS 

The Folly of Doubting the Execution of God's 
Threatenings, 1 

By Rev. E. Wilson, Editor. 

Worth of the Soul, 21 

By J. T. Smith, D.I). 

The Faithful Saying, ....... 44 

By "Willis Lord, D. D. 



The Ruling Passion, 63 

By W. B. Sprague, D. D. 



Supremacy of the Moral Law, 93 

By J. W. Yeomans, D. D. 

Distrust of the Word, ]09 

By J. W. Alexander, D.D. 

Consistency of the Divine Government. . . . 129 

By Geo. Junkin, D.D. 

Efficiency of Christian Principle, .... 157 

By Thos. Smyth, D.D. 

TflE Good Man, 174 

By John MTowell, D. D. 

The House of God, 188 

By W. A. Scott, D. D. 



(m) 



IV CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Perpetuity of the Church, 225 

By J. C. Lord, D.D. 

Seeing Things Invisible, , 249 

By J. H. Jones, D.D. 

Christ the Life of his People, 263 

By Robert J. Breckinridge, D. D., L. L. D. 

Faith and Sight Contrasted, . . . . 299 

By A. T. M'Gill, D. D. 



Catholicity of the Gospel, 319 

By Chas. Hodge, D. D. 



Christian Submission, 337 

By H. A. Boardman, D. D. 

The Prodigal, 353 

By John Leyburn, D. D. 

The Tree Known by its Fruits, .... 374 

By E. P. Humphrey, D. D. 



PREFACE 



In presenting the Living Pulpit to the Public, the Editor feels 
that no apology is needed. The book presents a collection of Ser- 
mons by some of the most eminent living divines of the Presby- 
terian Church, whose names are a sufficient guaranty that the 
matter is essential truth, presented in the most attractive form. 

The Sermons were furnished at the request of the Editor ex- 
pressly for this volume, and are practical and didactic. 

The design of the publication will be fully seen by a reference 
to the biographical sketch of the Editor, prepared by George "W. 
Bethune, D. D. 

Whilst the Editor, in common with others engaged in the dis- 
semination of divine truth by the agency of the press, expects a 
pecuniary compensation for his labours, yet he trusts that his 
efforts in this department will meet with the approbation of Zion's 
King, and be abundantly blessed by Him to the promotion of his 
own glory, in the salvation of souls. 

(v) 



VI PREFACE. 

Should this volume meet with public favour, it may be fol- 
lowed by similar productions from eminent divines of other 
denominations. 

The Editor would here most gratefully acknowledge his indebted- 
ness to his brethren, for their kindness and courtesy in furnishing 
their valuable contributions for the work : and hopes that in the 
developments of eternity multitudes will be found before the 
throne of God, who were encouraged in their Christian course, 
or first directed to the Saviour, by these Sermons, and who will 
there rejoice with the authors over the hallowed influence of the 

Living Pulpit. 

E. W. 

Philadelphia, Oct. 1st, 1852, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



THE EDITOR 



BY GEO. W. BETIIUXE, D. D. 



The severe trials of the Rev. Elijah Wilson, and the 
Christian patience with which he has struggled through 
them to usefulness, have won for him the sympathy and 
affectionate respect of many friends. As another method 
of doing good, and at the same time of honourably meeting 
unavoidable claims on his exertions, he has been led to 
publish this volume. The names of the good and able men 
who have cheerfully assisted his design, by contributing 
Discourses, give the best proof of the estimation in which 
he is held, and of the profit to be expected, under the Divine 
blessing, from the reading of the book. A slight sketch 
of his history may not be an uninteresting preface. 

He was born in Philadelphia, the only child of James and 
Mary Wilson. His paternal grand parents were of Scotch- 
Irish blood, and came to this country a short time before 
the American Revolution, settling first in Haddonfield, New 
Jersey, but soon removing to Philadelphia, where James, the 
father of Elijah, was born in 1774. 

His grand parents on the other side, whose name was 
Thomas, came from Wales after the close of the war, and 
settled on a farm in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 
where Mary, their only child, was born about 1788, and, at 
the age of 22, married to Mr. Wilson, who carried her to 
Philadelphia, in which city they spent their subsequent days. 

Mr. Wilson's family were Episcopalians, but, for the 

(vii) 



Vlll BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOR. 

greater part of his life, lie preferred worshipping with Pres- 
byterians, though he never became a communicant. Mrs. 
Wilson continued in the principles of her parents, who be- 
longed to the society of Friends ; but her views of Christian 
doctrine were highly evangelical, and she strongly inculcated 
the truths of the Gospel on the growing mind of her son, 
whose delicate health during* boyhood brought him more 
closely under her happy care and pious teachings. 

From his early years Elijah was noted for an active, 
inquiring mind. To a great fondness for books, he added 
not a little mechanical genius, and a taste for art. This last 
tendency was more or less cultivated at different times, and 
he attained sufficient skill, especially in landscape painting, 
to defray the expense of his living and education for some 
time after death had deprived him (in his fifteenth year) of 
his father. Previously to this his studies had been inter- 
rupted by a severe dropsical affection, from which, after a 
twelvemonth's suffering, he was providentially restored by 
the skill of his physician, Dr. Hays, of Philadelphia. 

Undiscouraged by such various hindrances and difficulties, 
he was determined to have a thoroughly classical education ; 
and, when about eighteen, he entered the Academy at Kin- 
derhook, New York, then under the able superintendence 
of Mr. Silas Metcalf. At Kinderhook it was his privilege 
to sit under the faithful, energetic ministry of the late Rev. Dr. 
Sickles, minister of the Reformed Dutch Church there ; and, 
in the summer of 1831, he received, through the distin- 
guishing grace of God his Saviour, the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. He united with the Church in the following autumn. 
His earnest piety, ready talents, and thirst after knowledge, 
attracted the approving regard of Dr. Sickles, and other 
pious friends, who advised him to study for the sacred min- 
istry ; which counsel, after much anxious, prayerful delib- 
eration, he followed, and diligently prepared himself for 
College. In the autumn of 1835 he was matriculated as a 
member of the Sophomore Class, in Rutgers' College, New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, and prosecuted his studies with 
credit and success for the next twelvemonth, supporting 
himself by his own industry, yet fully keeping up with his 
more favoured classmates. But the double tax upon his 
energies, physical and mental, was too great for a constitu- 
tion never strong, and shaken by former disease. His 
nervous system being much impaired, he sought medical aid 
without success ; yet continued, though feebly and at inter- 



BIOUUAPIIICAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOR. IX 

vals, to pursue the course of the College, until towards the 
Christmas holidays. Already, however, he had had what 
he afterwards knew, though not then, to be the forebodings 
of the darkness which has since enveloped his life. About 
a year before this he lost his sense of smell, which he has 
never regained ; and in November, 1836, when returning 
alone from evening prayers in the College Chapel to his 
lodgings, he was suddenly struck with total blindness. 

For a little while he paused, wondering and alarmed in 
the darkness ; then attempted to grope his way homeward, 
but could not. He opened his eyes wide, but they had no 
sight ; after some moments he turned his face up to heaven 
and saw the blue sky, though the earth was veiled from him — 
then the heavy curtain slowly fell, and the world again* was 
revealed to his view. The sense, so strangely suspended, had 
returned. He reached home, but greatly enfeebled by the 
stroke to body and mind. The next week, while at his stu- 
dies, he again, and as suddenly, lost his sight ; but after a 
few minutes it came back to him as before. Anxious as he 
was in consequence of these two attacks, he did not antici- 
pate so terrible a calamity as utter, unrelieved blindness; 
but, though he relaxed his pursuits, the paroxysms became 
more and more frequent, until his retirement from College 
became necessary. His kind mother had been removed 
from earth a few years before this trial, which was severely 
aggravated by the loss of her affectionate care, and he 
sought at his second home, in Kinderhook, for rest and me- 
dical assistance. The physicians whom he consulted on his 
way in New York, encouraged him to hope for a cure when 
his general health should be recruited ; and at Kinderhook 
he had the advantage of being under the able treatment of 
Dr. Dorr ; but his seasons of darkness continued to return, 
his strength rapidly failed, and, though in the March follow- 
ing he was somewhat stronger, all objects were seen by him 
through a haze, which became more and more dim, until he 
could not distinguish one thing from another. One night, 
about the close of April, he went to bed and slept soundly ; 
but on awaking in the morning he saw no light. He heard 
the inmates moving about the house — he approached the 
window of his chamber — the warm rays of the sun fell upon 
his hands and his face, but the brightness of its beams were 
not for him. He was entirely blind. He hoped, at the 
first, that the darkness would be only temporary and partial 
as before ; but never since has he known the pleasantness 



X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE EDITOR. 

of looking upon the face of nature or the smiles of friends. 
At the high noon of that sad day he felt that the eclipse was 
total. His spirit sank within him. He refused to eat bread, 
and would fain have died. He tried to look up and "see 
Him who is invisible." He shut himself apart from his 
sympathising friends, and bemoaned himself in solitude. 
He knelt to pray, but his very soul was in darkness, and he 
was constrained to cry, " My God ! my God ! why hast thou 
forsaken me ?" The only scripture which spake to him, 
was the melancholy cry of the anguished prophet, " Is thy 
mercy clean gone for ever ?" His agony of heart and mind 
continued for many days. He wrestled in prayer day and 
night. His little strength entirely failed. A pain on the 
top of his head, which he had felt from the beginning of his 
illness, became more and more acute ; he lost for some time 
the sense of taste — so that those of touch and hearing only 
remained to him — his whole system was racked by frequent 
convulsions — his life was despaired of for more than a fort- 
night — and, though after that time his spiritual and physi- 
cal energies were partially restored during a few succeeding 
months, he fell back into the same bodily distresses — but, 
through the blessing of God, not into the same mental dis- 
tress, during the summer. 

The faithful skill of Dr. Van Dyke was, however, re- 
warded by a kind Providence with the entire restoration of 
his general health, but with no hope that he would ever 
again receive his sight. 

It is most pleasing to know that his spiritual faintness 
was the consequence not of unbelief, but .bodily infirmity ; 
for when his flesh rose from its weakness, and his brain re- 
covered soundness, his heart again delighted itself in God. 
"The celestial light shone inward;" and his buoyant tem- 
per, animated by divine joy, showed itself superior to his 
trials. This happy Christian courage has ever since ac- 
companied him, blessing his own life with a radiance from 
on high, and shedding from his cheerful, thankful example, 
an edifying pleasure upon all who have had the satisfaction 
of his society. 

He still fondly clung to the hope of prosecuting his stu- 
dies, but his friends persuaded him from attempting it; 
and abandoning his collegiate course, he, by their advice, 
entered the Institution for the Blind at Philadelphia, with a 
view of preparing himself to be a teacher of his brethren 
in affliction. But with limited means of improvement, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOR. XI 

through the slow process of reading by "raised letters," 
his ardent mind could not be content ; and he remained at 
the Institution only from December, 1837, until the follow- 
ing spring. At that time a severe erysipelas in his head 
and eyes excited some hope that a favourable change had 
occurred, and that by skilful treatment his sight might yet 
be recovered ; but, though he put himself into the experi- 
enced hands of Drs. Hays and Fox, of Philadelphia, his 
expectations were baffled. 

Some kind friends (especially one Mr. W., of New York, 
for whose warm and active regard he has great reason to be 
grateful) thought that, with the aid of a partner, he might 
succeed in some branch of business, and had begun to make 
arrangements to that end. But the good Providence, which 
had chastened his spirit, intended better things ; for, while 
on his way up the Hudson to visit Kinderhook, he fell in 
with the Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, then the agent of the 
Auburn Theological Seminary, who advised him to go on 
with his studies for the ministry ; and, to encourage him, 
cited the case of his cousin, the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, 
who had become blind during his collegiate course, yet had 
continued his preparation, and was preaching with success 
as the pastor of a church. 

Mr. Woodbridge suggested that an arrangement might be 
effected with some theological students to read the lessons 
in which they were engaged to him by turns. Mr. Wilson 
was favourably impressed with the plan, which Mr. Wood- 
bridge promised his assistance to carry out. While await- 
ing Mr. Woodbridge's further communication, he was in- 
vited to visit the home of a college classmate, whose father, 
Captain John Steele, resided at Paradise, Pennsylvania. 
There, unwilling to be idle, he occupied and amused by 
teaching occasionally the two younger sons of his hospitable 
entertainer. Capt. Steele was so much pleased with the 
rapid improvement of his boys under Mr. Wilson's teaching, 
that he requested him to act as the private tutor of his chil- 
dren, which he did, and taught the two daughters, as well as 
the two sons of his host, with great success, until the March 
following, when Mr. Woodbridge wrote to him that he had 
made the arrangement, which he had promised, for Mr. 
Wilson's theological studies, at the seminary in Auburn, New 
York ; and, not without many spoken blessings, accompa- 
nied by substantial evidence of esteem, from Capt. Steele, 
he left the home of that generous gentleman, to enter on his 



211 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOK. 

course at Auburn, in April 1889, and there continued hia 
studies most profitably until the spring of 1841, practising 
his gifts as a public speaker by occasional exhortations in 
the religious meetings around, which were well received. In 
March of that year, after a close examination, he was regu- 
larly licensed as a candidate for the ministry, by the Pres- 
bytery of Cayuga, on which occasion he received from the 
members of that revered body many proofs of approbation 
and encouraging counsel. 

Desirous of yet further improvement before entering upon 
the full labours of the sacred office, he, by the advice of a 
friend who was studying in the Theological Seminary at 
Princeton, and who engaged to make for him there an ar- 
rangement like that by which he had profited so much at 
Auburn, he determined to spend a year in the school of the 
prophets, under the wise superintendence of the Rev. Doc- 
tors Alexander, Miller and Hodge. In the meantime, he 
ventured to travel alone to visit his hospitable friend Capt. 
Steele, and preached frequently on the way ; every where 
on the road and in the house meeting with attentive kind- 
ness. In September (having been detained by an illness of 
several weeks) he entered the Seminary at Princeton, and 
enjoyed regularly the opportunities of his class until May, 
1842, when he was transferred from the Presbytery of New 
Brunswick (to which he had been dismissed from the Pres- 
bytery of Cayuga) to the Presbytery of New Castle, Dela- 
ware, by whom he was sent, in June, 1842, as a stated sup- 
ply for the churches of Newark and Christiana. His ser- 
vices were so well received, that those -churches, in the 
August following, united in giving him an unanimous call, 
and he was installed as their pastor on the 12th of the next 
October. Here he was blessed in winning the affections of 
a most estimable and intelligent young lady, Miss Ann Gray, 
daughter of Mr. Andrew Gray, of Chestnut Hill, Newark, 
whom he married on the 29th of November of the same 
year. Their union was eminently happy. Mr. Wilson con- 
tinued in the charge of these churches, preaching regularly 
and doing the full duty of a pastor for four years. It is 
but just to say, that his labours were owned of God and the 
Church. They were richly blessed ; scarcely a sacramental 
communion passed without the evidence of fruit, and, at 
one time, a considerable revival crowned his preaching of 
the Word. So much was he strengthened, notwithstanding 
his infirmity, that, in the spring of 1844, being invited to 



BIOGRAriUCAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOR. Xlll 

assist the pastor of the church at Wilmington, he preached 
for fourteen successive evenings, labouring the while through- 
out the day in visits of exhortation. This Mr. Wilson 
gratefully remembers as a most precious season of in- 
gathering, when "many souls were added unto the Church." 

For several reasons, which he considered sufficient, and 
his known "aptness to teach," Mr. Wilson was persuaded, 
in the spring of 1845, to take the superintendence of a 
"Female Seminary," at Newark, still retaining his pastoral 
care of the two churches which have been named. In this 
important school, about forty young ladies pursued a wide 
range of studies, and Mr. Wilson received high testimonials 
from most competent judges, to his fidelity as a preceptor, 
which was shown, at the examinations, by the scholars 
themselves. The written certificates given to Mr. Wilson 
speak of this sufficiently. His multiplied labours as a pas- 
tor of two churches and active principal of such a seminary 
were, however, too much for his strength. 

In the spring of 1846 he was compelled to resign his 
pulpits ; and in a year or two afterwards he gave up the 
charge of the school, which in the spring of 1847 had been 
moved to Wilmington. About this period of his life the 
Lord was pleased again to "bruise our brother, and put him 
to grief," visiting him with yet more and yet more bitter 
sorrows. His pecuniary fortunes suffered from some ill-ad- 
vised changes in his school. Mrs. Wilson's health was shaken, 
and various circumstances led them to a more private life in 
the bosom of her father's family, whose residence was now 
at Wilmington. He w r as not, however, idle, but assisted 
Mr. Gayley of the Wilmington Academy, and preached to 
a feeble Church which had been begun in the outskirts of 
the city. 

Now, July 1848, came upon him the saddest calamity of his 
life. His charming and devoted wife had been to him in every 
respect a helpmeet, enlivening darkness, cheering his labours, 
solacing his disappointments. God had given them two fair 
sons, Andrew Gray, (born December, 1844,) Chalmers, (Au- 
gust, 1847.) Their domestic content was full of sweetness — its 
chief charm the pious, cultivated, affectionate, clear minded, 
and strong hearted woman, who in every relation as a daugh- 
ter, wife, mother, friend and member of Christ's Church, had 
won love from all who knew her, but especially from her blind, 
thankful husband. Yet she heard the voice of her Master 
calling her away, and died of the typhoid fever on the eve- 



XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOR. 

ning of the 10th of the month. " She was not, for G-od 
took her." Mr. Wilson sustained, as he could not but be, 
by the assurance of her sleep in Jesus, suffered far more 
from the absence of his bosom's comforter, than he had done 
from the loss of his sight. With her life, his second, better 
light went out. It was the deepest gloom of midnight to 
his heart ; an irresistible melancholy came over his soul, 
which the sympathy of affectionate friends sought to alle- 
viate, but could not chase away. He had to go on his way 
blind, without the gentle hand to lead him, which, by the 
gift of God, had been his ever careful, gentle guide. 

But the children she had bequeathed him demanded his 
exertions, and the work of his Lord his zeal. His long 
tried, steadfast friend, the Rev. S. M. Grayley, was mindful 
of him, and, by generous influence, obtained for him the 
useful post of assistant chaplain to the Eastburn Mariners' 
Church of Philadelphia, the Rev. 0. Douglass, the pastor 
(since gone to rest), having been compelled, by declining 
health, to leave the main duties in Mr. Wilson's hands. 
The labours of Mr. Wilson in this pleasing scene of mission- 
ary work were highly acceptable to the mariners, and those 
who had the superintendence of the church. 

There he continued to serve, blessing and blest, until 
early in the spring of 1849, when he received a unanimous 
call from the Presbyterian Church at Wrights ville, York 
County, Pennsylvania, to become their pastor, which he 
accepted. 

His entrance upon this new sphere of exertion was 
signalised by a copious rain of the Spirit, reviving the 
church, and causing many plants of righteousness to spring- 
up within the garden of the Lord from the good seed of his 
word. The ministry of Mr. Wilson continued to be highly 
appreciated by the congregation of Wrightsville, and he 
exercised it, notwithstanding his physical disabilities, with 
ease and comfort. Several of his friends, however, with 
whose judgment his own agreed, adopted the opinion that 
his usefulness might be enhanced by his giving himself to 
the spread of the truth through the press ; and, in order to 
the making of a full experiment, he resigned the pastoral 
charge of the Wrightsville Church in December, 1851, 
though, at the earnest request of the elders and congrega- 
tion, he still continued to occupy their pulpit as the stated 
preacher until June 1852. 

It was Mr. Wilson's first intention to publish some of his 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCII OF THE EDITOR. X7 

own religious writings ; but shrinking from what he modestly 
feared might be thought undue presumption, he has deter- 
mined that his opening venture should be with the writings 
of others, who are widely known and approved throughout 
the Evangelical Church of this country. How well he has 
been assisted by his fathers and brethren, the contents of 
the present volume show. He sends.it forth, hopeful of the 
divine blessing. 

Such is the simple story of his afflicted yet favoured life. 
The general facts have been taken down from his own lips, 
as he told what the Lord had done for his soul, and " men- 
tioned the loving kindness and great goodness" of the angel 
of the covenant, in leading him " by ways which he knew 
not, and paths he had not known." If some words of affec- 
tionate praise are found threaded throughout this narrative, 
it is because the writer of these pages could not deny him- 
self the expression of his feelings. They have been written 
under the bias of a warm friendship ; but that warmth of 
friendship has been the consequence of his acquaintance with 
Mr. Wilson's character and course, which have won for him 
a like esteem from all who knew him. 

No doubt the trials of his experience induced a tender- 
ness of judgment ; but it is not less certain that his pa- 
tience, and cheerfulness, and courageous perseverance compel 
towards him a rare respect and heartfelt good wishes. Nor 
must it be thought that this opinion of him as a Christian 
man and an Evangelical minister, has been formed only 
when considering his difficulties. Were he not blind, he 
would be entitled to an equal estimation. Pursuing his 
studies continuously and earnestly, by the help of readers, 
his memory and his power of attention have been strength- 
ened by practice. His range of investigation has been 
wide ; his acquaintance with standard authors in vari- 
ous departments of theological and general literature is 
familiar ; his judgment, from the intensity of his thought, 
while listening to the friend at his side, has become unu- 
sually quick and sound, so that it may be said with truth, 
few of our working clergy are better stored with material 
for the pulpit than he. He thoroughly understands and 
faithfully expounds the system of truth set forth in the 
standards of the church to which he is loyally attached. 
His discourses are notable for their analytical arrangement; 
his definitions are apt ; his illustrations happy ; his mode 
of thought oftentimes fresh ; his language easy and not de- 



XVI BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE EDITOR. 

void of unction; which, united to a demonstrative force, 
distinct enunciation, and a natural earnestness mingled 
with pathos, render him, through divine blessing, a forcible, 
pleasing preacher. The absence of sight interests his hear- 
ers for him, but occasions no awkwardness, of manner, or 
unpleasant feelings ; and he is listened to with emotions of 
thankfulness that it pleases God to bring such joyful light 
out of such darkness. 

His story is instructive, confirming the evangelical doc- 
trine, that we may, through grace, " glory in tribulation," 
be made strong by weakness, and "count it all joy when 
we fall into manifold temptations ;'' nay, that there are no 
impediments or obstacles insuperable to one who, trusting 
his Master's promise, is determined upon doing what his 
" hands find to do, with all his might." 



THE FOLLY OF DOUBTING THE EXECUTION 
OF GOD'S THREATENINGS. 

BY 

THE REV. E. WILSON, EDITOR. 



Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, 
walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of 
his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
they were from the beginning of the creation. — 2 Peter iii. 3, 4. 

This is a prophetic declaration of an apostle, rela- 
tive to the character and conduct of a class of men 
who would arise in the last days, that is, at the 
termination of the Jewish polity, and, affecting to 
discredit the promises and threat enings of God, by 
scoffing at religion, would walk after their own lusts. 

The history of every age, since the days of the 
apostles, has furnished lamentable proof of the truth 
of this declaration. Even in this age, under the in- 
creasing light of the gospel, scoffers are increasing 
in number and daring profaneness. So true is the 
affirmation of Scripture, that "evil men and seducers 
shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being 
deceived." " For, as in water face answereth to 
face, so the heart of man to man." In every age 
unbelief marks his character, and evinces the truth 
of Scripture, that " the heart is deceitful above all 
2 (i) 



Z FOLLY OF DOUBTING GODS THREAT ENINGS. 

things, and desperately wicked." With affections 
thus averse to holiness, he refuses obedience to the 
divine commands, and yields to his wayward pro- 
pensities. When urged to the duty of repentance 
and faith, he flies to some refuge of lies ; and to still 
the voice of conscience, affects to doubt the truth of 
divine* threatenings. 

My object is to show the folly of those who doubt 
the execution of God's threatenings. 

Their folly will appear evident from the following 
reasons : 

1st. Because they demand an immediate fulfil- 
ment, saying, "Where is the promise of his coming ?" 
The scoffer must see an immediate exhibition of 
retributive justice, or else he utterly refuses to 
believe the evidence which God has been pleased 
to give. 

It needs no very extensive survey of the divine 
government, to discover that an immediate execu- 
tion of threatenings is not a principle of its adminis- 
tration. For an apt illustration of this principle, 
refer to the history of Manasseh.. The character 
of this prince was of the most detestable kind. He 
not only filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, but 
also caused Judah and Jerusalem io sin more griev- 
ously than any of the surrounding nations. Idolatry, 
through his influence, became the prevailing religion 
from the royal court to the meanest subject. In 
addition to these enormities, the warnings and admo- 
nitions by the prophets to this proud and idolatrous 
prince, were rejected by both prince and people with 
disdain. 
Thus provoked by contempt, and by the violation of 



E. WILSON. O 

every law of humanity, justice, and mercy, Jehovah 
threatens Manasseh and his people with a sweeping 
destruction, saying, " Because Manasseh, king of 
Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done 
wickedly above all that the Amorites did which 
were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin 
with his idols ; therefore, thus saith the Lord God 
of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jeru- 
salem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it both 
his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jeru- 
salem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the 
house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem, as a 
man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside 
down. And I will forsake the remnant of mine 
inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their 
enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil 
to all their enemies ; because they have done that 
which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me 
to anger since the day their fathers came forth out 
of Egypt, even unto this day." But did God, in 
this instance, immediately execute his threatenings ? 
No, for the subsequent history shows that Manasseh 
himself died in peace, and the execution of it on his 
people was deferred to the reign of Zedekiah, about 
one hundred years. 

Again, this principle of the divine government 
is more strikingly illustrated in the history of 
Amalek. This idolatrous nation made an attack 
on Israel when weary and enfeebled from their 
wanderings in the desert; but Jehovah wrought a 
complete victory for his chosen people. 

This unprovoked attack brought on Amalek the 
displeasure of Jehovah. And as an expression of his 



4 FOLLY OF DOUBTING GODS THREATEN1NGS. 

righteous indignation, "the Lord said unto Moses, 
Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it 
in the ears of Joshua ; for I will utterly put out the 
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." Here, 
again, is sentence against the transgressor immedi- 
ately executed ? By no means ; for, notwithstanding 
this threatening, Amalek is, through the divine for- 
bearance, preserved from immediate destruction. 
Still, lest it should be inferred from this delay that 
God had forgotten their sins, or indeed never in- 
tended to execute his sentence, he, after the lapse 
of nearly half a century, renews, with additional 
reasons, his command to the Israelites, the chosen 
instruments to inflict his wrath, saying, " Remember 
what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye 
were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by 
the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all 
that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint 
and weary ; and he feared not God. Therefore it 
shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee 
rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land 
which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inherit- 
ance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the re- 
membrance of Amalek from under heaven ; thou 
shalt not forget it." 

The subsequent history of this people shows 
that they continued, from age to age, to cherish 
towards Israel a hostile disposition, and like modern 
scoffers, perfectly secure in their sins, they hastened 
to fill up the measure of their iniquity. 

The long-suffering of God having at length be- 
come exhausted, he delivers, after the lapse of five 
hundred and forty-eight years, his final command. 



E. WILSON. 

through his prophet Samuel, saying to king Saul, 
" Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy 
all that they have, and spare them not; but slay 
both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and 
sheep, camel and ass." This threatening was now 
fully accomplished, and the remembrance of Amalek 
blotted out from under heaven. 

It is true, that the history of Man ass eh and 
Amalek gives but an imperfect view of the testi- 
mony which might be gathered, to prove that an 
immediate execution of threatenings is not a princi- 
ple of the divine administration. But if the testi- 
mony of Moses and the Prophets fails to convince 
the scoffer, that God will finally fulfil his word, then 
would he not be persuaded though one rose from 
the dead. 

The reason of this long delay of judgment given 
by the apostle in the chapter whence our text is 
taken, is, that God is "long suffering to us ward, 
not willing that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance." And we would natu 
rally infer, that such an exhibition of forbearance in 
the midst of deserved wrath, would induce the sin 
oer to embrace this favourable moment to " seek 
the Lord while he may be found," and thus escape 
his judgment. But such is the madness of his heart, 
and the folly of his course, that in bold defiance of 
every threatening of the Almighty, he, sheltering 
himself beneath his unreasonable doubts, still per- 
sists in his rebellion, and asks, amidst the clearest 
evidence, " Where is the promise of his coming ?" 
" Where is the God of judgment ?" 

II. But, again, their folly is more strikingly mani- 
fest, because they utterly disregard the teachings of 
Providence. 



6 FOLLY OF DOUBTING GOD'S THREATENINGS. 

Every impenitent heart is prone to imagine that 
God is a being simply benevolent, overlooking his 
justice and holiness. This vain notion the sinner 
continues to cherish, though God, through the abun- 
dance of his mercy, has, in his providence, added 
instruction to instruction. But the greater the light — 
in which God exhibits his determined purpose in- 
violably to unite in his moral government, justice, 
mercy and holiness — the more obstinately blind does 
the sinner remain. And if nothing but an over- 
whelming exhibition of power, in executing the 
fierceness of his wrath, could arouse the scoffer from 
his willing stupidity, God has, even of this, conde- 
scended to give him abundant examples. 

A moral lesson, irresistible in its impression on 
the reflecting mind, we have given us in the terrific 
destruction of the antediluvian world. One hun- 
dred and twenty years did divine justice, through 
the intercession of mercy in behalf of its guilty 
inhabitants, forbear to execute its denunciations of 
wrath. But like sinners of the present age, those 
incorrigible and stupid sons of violence suffered the 
time given them for repentance to pass unimproved. 
Divine justice, though forbearing, slumbered not. 
The unexpected, the fatal hour arrived. Mercy re- 
tired. The door of hope was closed, and justice, 
with the besom of destruction, swept a guilty race 
from the face of the earth. God, as if determined 
that this lesson of instruction should not be lost to 
any succeeding age, not only recorded it upon the 
sacred page, but also chronicled it upon the corner- 
stones of the world, inscribed it on every moun 
tain top, left its impress on the surface of every 



E. WILSON. i 

vailey, and transmitted it through the traditions of 
all nations. 

But has the hand of divine justice been less truly 
manifested in the moral government of the world 
in any succeeding age ? By no means. For where 
is Nineveh, that once humbled yet impenitent city ? 
Where are the cities of the plain? We have the 
answer of the apostle, that " God, turning the cities 
of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them 
with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto 
those that after should live ungodly." The same 
inquiry and answer may be made in reference to 
Babylon, Tyre and Sidon, Carthage and Borne. 
These were among the most renowned cities of the 
world ; long the subject of prophecy ; distinguished 
alike for their extent and influence ; the enormity 
and number of their crimes, and, finally, not less 
distinguished for the display of divine justice in 
their destruction. 

But the moral lessons to be derived from the 
volume of providence, whether the instructive 
events be remote or near, appear alike inefficient in 
teaching the scoffer his true character, and in con- 
vincing him that the most high God ruleth in the 
kingdoms of men, and that he appointeth over them 
whomsoever he will. 

Nebuchadnezzar, a proud and idolatrous monarch 
of Babylon, while walking in the palace of his king- 
dom, and being elated with the greatness of his 
capital, and the glory of his dominion, u spake, and 
said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for 
the house of the kingdom, by the might of my 
power, and for the honour of my majesty?" But 



8 FOLLY OF DOUBTING GODS THKEATENINGS. 

how suddenly was he arrested in his career ! " While 
the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice 
from heaven, saying, king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee 
it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee ; 
and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwell- 
ing shall be with the beasts of the field ! they shall 
make thee to eat grass as oxen ; and seven times 
shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most 
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it 
to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the 
thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar." 

Now Belshazzar, his grandson and possessor of 
his throne, though acquainted with this history of 
Nebuchadnezzar, yet rejecting all its evidence of the 
sovereignty of God, pursued a course still more 
aggravating in the sight of heaven ; the more aggra- 
vating, because he had the greater means of in- 
struction. But in the midst of his idolatrous feast 
" came forth fingers of a man's hand, writing on the 
wall of his palace — Mene, mene, tekel, uphaksin," 
the sentence of his condemnation and execution. 

Alarmed at this vision, the king finally brings in 
the servant of the true God, because he alone was 
found able to interpret the writing. So true is it 
that Jehovah will always put honour on his children 
in humbling his enemies. 

Daniel, when admitted into the royal presence, 
briefly states the history of Nebuchadnezzar, his 
crimes, condemnation, humility, and restoration, and 
declares to the king, " Thou, his son, Belshazzar, 
hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest 
all this." 

It is true, that time has removed to a great dis- 



E. WILSON. 9 

tance all the events above specified, but the case of 
the Jewish nation is a standing miracle ; evidencing, 
beyond reasonable doubt, that Jehovah is still the 
governor of the nations, the King of kings, and Lord 
of lords. For who can be ignorant of the fact, that 
the house of Israel, though long the favourite of 
heaven, yet has been for ages scattered among every 
nation of the earth. Cruelly oppressed in every way 
which human ingenuity could devise, and still pre- 
served a distinct people ; reserved, both as objects 
of wrath and mercy, to furnish some forthcoming 
age a signal exhibition of the divine glory. 

Bit we need not depend for evidence exclusively 
on the history of nations, for we have ample proof 
in the life of each individual, that God, from the 
volume of providence, is giving every man impres- 
sive lessons for his immediate improvement. 

What though some regard not the work of Jeho- 
vah, neither consider the operation of his hands, yet 
to every willing mind he is constantly exhibiting 
himself rich in mercy, glorious in holiness, wisdom, 
and power. 

The harmony of our moral and physical consti- 
tution, with the laws of nature, proves beyond con- 
tradiction, that the Author of our being not only 
designs our happiness, but also that we should con- 
stantly associate in our minds obedience and happi- 
ness, disobedience and misery. For every man finds, 
from daily experience, that an infringement of these 
laws is followed, sooner or later, and generally in- 
stantly, by pain, disease, misery, and death. And 
equally indubitable is the testimony of individual 
experience, that a strict observance of these laws is 



10 FOLLF OF DOUBTING GOD'S THREATENINGS. 

followed by health and happiness. The full flow 
of animal spirits consequent on partaking of a cheer- 
ful meal, in strict accordance with the laws of health, 
as truly inculcates the doctrine as does the Bible 
itself, that God purposes in his dealings with us to 
unite inseparably in our minds obedience and happi- 
ness. But is the testimony of our experience, as to 
the effect of regarding or violating the moral law 
of our being, less certain than that of the physical? 
or is it consonant to reason to suppose that less har- 
mony and order of sequence would exist in the moral 
world than in the physical ? 

The experience of every man fully accords with 
the doctrine of the Bible, that the work of right- 
eousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteous- 
ness quietness and assurance for ever. Surely these 
instances are enough to convince every rational per- 
son that God, in his supervision of the world, is con- 
stantly furnishing lessons of moral instruction, and 
that he has not at any time left himself without a 
witness. What, then, must be the folly of those 
who utterly disregard the teachings of divine 
providence ! 

III. Those therefore, who, under such circum- 
stances still continue to cherish their unbelief, must 
evidently make their doubting the truth of God an 
excuse for their sin. This conduct of the sinner is 
evidently nothing less than to offer one sin as a pre- 
text for committing many more. But how absurd 
and vain is such a refuge ! 

Such, however, are the extremes of absurdity to 
which the sinner is driven by a love of sin; but let 



E. WILSON. 



11 



conscience awake, and remorse will arise in his mind, 
from a consciousness of personal guilt, and fear of 
condign punishment. 

Hence, when the transgressor becomes truly con- 
scious of personal guilt, he cannot but be tormented 
with that fearful looking for of judgment and fiery 
indignation which shall devour the adversaries. So 
long, therefore, as he continues under the dominion 
of Satan, and wedded to his lusts, the unequivocal 
sentence, that "the wicked shall be turned into 
hell," must pierce him with horror. Here we would 
infer, that the sinner, from a sense of his guilt and 
danger, would ground the weapons of his rebellion, 
and plead for pardon. But no — lest he should be 
compelled to close with the voice of God and of con- 
science, he makes lies his refuge, and under false- 
hood he hides himself. 

Thus, when the conscience has been overpowered 
by continually resisting all its admonitions, then 
their wayward passions constitute their only guide, 
the gratification of their carnal desires the object 
and end of their being. 

Are not the laws of God, and his plan of salvation 
by a Mediator, of such a character as to commend 
themselves to the judgment and conscience even of 
the impenitent ? If not, why does sudden calamity 
and fear compel even the vilest of the wicked to 
implore divine assistance, and earnestly beseech our 
Lord and Saviour for mercy to avert His impending 
wrath, which in the day of prosperity they so affect- 
edly disregard or despise ? But let the long-suffer- 
ing mercy of heaven withdraw His avenging hand, 
sheathe the sword of justice, and restore prosperity, 



12 FOLLY OF DOUBTING GOD'S THREATEXINGS. 

Low soon do their vain hopes revive, and they again 
resort to the same subterfuge of lies ! Despising the 
riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and long- 
suffering, they renew boldly and confidently their 
feeble strength to contend with Omnipotence ; they 
stretch out their hand against God, and strengthen 
themselves against the Almighty; they run upon 
him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of 
his bucklers. 

It is an old adage, and as true as it is old, " that 
experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn 
in no other." Now, how wise these men become 
from experience, for though they have had repeated 
warnings, yet they seek peace and safety by again 
opposing their moral nature. 

But does not this conduct evidently show that 
these men only pretend to disbelieve what they 
know is true, that they may furnish by doubting 
an excuse for sin ? On what other conceivable prin- 
ciple can the fact be explained, that adversity does 
so effectually destroy their hopes, and compel them 
to close with the voice of God and of conscience ? 
It is, therefore, evident that the scoffer's love of sin 
is so inveterate, that whenever urged to repentance 
and faith, he is necessitated, though he thus does 
violence to his moral nature, to shelter himself 
under the vain refuge of doubting the truth of God, 
that he may thereby have an excuse for continuing 
in sin. 

Though the truth is attested by an overwhelming 
amount of evidence, when duly weighed, yet because 
this evidence is not given in such form as the sin- 
ner himself may capriciously choose, therefore he 
utterly refuses all evidence. So incredulous is he, 



E. WILSON. Id 

as to reject the truth, though proved by the strongest 
evidence, and to embrace error though supported by 
the weakest. In this, his incredulity, he glories, 
because, in his opinion, it elevates him above the 
common herd of mankind, and evinces greatness 
and freedom of intellect. Women, children, and 
feeble-minded men may believe the word of God on 
the evidence which he has been pleased to give, but 
such credulity is beneath the dignity of great intel- 
lects and capacious minds. No, no. These persons 
cannot believe the truth when evinced to a cer- 
tainty, but to show their incredulity must receive 
error, though disproved by all the evidence that 
boasted reason itself can adduce. To manifest their 
incredulity fully, it is necessary to take only one step 
more, and that is, to exhibit their principles in prac- 
tice, which they do by " walking continually after 
their own lusts." 

Thus their very practice furnishes no weak evi- 
dence of the truth which they affect to disbelieve. 
Having nothing but the subterfuge of a doubt to 
offer as an excuse for thus rebelling against God, yet 
they confidently demand, " Where is the promise of 
his coming V " Where is the God of judgment ?" 
But divine justice will not always slumber, and 
suffer these men to manifest this vain confidence; 
" for the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the 
night." "For when they shall say peace and safety 
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail 
upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape." 

IV. Again, their folly will the more evidently 
appear, because they suspend their highest interests 
on an unreasonable doubt 



14 FOLLY OF DOUBTING GODS TIIREATENINGS. 

Since "there is no work, nor device, nor know- 
ledge, nor wisdom, in the grave," reason, as well 
as revelation, would teach us that every one should 
strive to make his calling and election sure, "while 
it is the accepted time and the day of salva- 
tion." But in opposition to the voice of God, of 
conscience, and of nature through all her works, the 
impenitent blindly, but wilfully, pursue their way 
of rebellion and death. " For if we sin wilfully 
after that we have received the knowledge of the 
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but 
a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery 
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." * 

Man was created in knowledge, righteousness and 
holiness, and was endowed with these intellectual 
and moral powers, that he might, in all the works 
of creation and providence, behold and reflect the 
glory of his Creator, and find happiness in obeying 
his commands. 

But the crown has fallen from his head, and all 
glory has departed from him. In consequence of 
the innate depravity of his heart, he now rejects the 
knowledge of the Most High, disregards the glory 
of his character, yields himself to the service of Sa- 
tan and the dominion of sin, despises the Son of 
God and his salvation, and thus effectually destroys, 
not only his present, but eternal happiness. 

While absorbed in the gratification of his passions, 
he esteems his own permanent well-being, the hap- 
piness of the universe, and the glory of the great 
Jehovah, as objects unworthy of rational pursuit — 
unworthy of the least regard. And when the 
gospel urges its claims on his attention, with all its 



E. WILSON. 1 



power of appeal to the heart, he awakes from his 
lethargy only to doubt, and vainly wish for happi- 
ness in a course of disobedience and death. For 
if the gospel, with its promises and threatenings, is 
true, then the scoffer must perish ; there is no alter- 
native. But that it may eventually prove true is 
at least possible, and its bare possibility involves 
interests too important to be banished from the 
human mind, or for a moment to be neglected. 

How great, then, must be the folly of those who 
doubt the execution of God's threatenings, and still 
more absurd does it appear, since on their very 
doubt the question turns of their eternal happiness. 

But why is it, that the impenitent take so little 
interest in their permanent well-being, while they 
so zealously expend all their powers to lay up 
treasures on earth, " where moth and rust doth cor- 
rupt, and where thieves break through and steal." 
They never suffer a doubt to prevent their most 
strenuous efforts, while there is the least prospect 
of obtaining the objects of their carnal desires. A 
possibility of extending an empire will so arouse 
all the energies and ambitious hopes of an Alex- 
ander, or a Bonapart, that they will call into requi- 
sition all the resources of a nation, and jeopard the 
life of millions, merely to promote their own 
aggrandizement. Is there a possibility of the mer- 
chant increasing his means of earthly enjoyment 
by foreign commerce ? Without reluctance he will 
expose all his property, though the product of his 
toil and exhausting labour for years, to the mercy 
of the raging storm and treacherous ocean. The 
same hope, excited by the success of others, inspires 



16 



FOLLY OF DOUBTING GODS THREATENINGS. 



the heart of the poor and the oppressed, and calls 
into vigorous activity all their powers, to increase 
merely their present happiness. 

What expense will the wicked, when assailed by 
disease, spare to secure their recovery, and prolong 
their life for self-indulgence ? Such is their love 
of the world and fear of judgment, that a mere pos 
sibility of recovery elates them with hope, and 
makes them cling even to the last moment of life, 
as the wrecked mariner clings to a fragment of his 
shattered bark. 

Now, can men of sane minds deem themselves 
wise, in sanctioning such conduct in respect to their 
temporal interests, and the preservation of their 
bodies, while they suffer an unreasonable doubt to 
blast the highest interests of their souls ? Would 
not consistency of conduct absolutely demand, even 
on the mere possibility of the reality of religion, 
and of the truth of its promises and threatenings, 
that they should put forth vigorously their best di- 
rected efforts, to secure also their permanent well- 
being ? But Christianity rests not on a bare possi- 
bility ; its reality is attested by all the evidence 
which reason can ask for or desire. What, then, 
must be the inconsistency — nay, consummate folly, of 
those who not only suspend their own everlasting 
happiness on an unreasonable doubt, but also utterly 
disregard the well-being of the universe, and con- 
temn the glory of the eternal God ? " He that sit- 
teth in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall have 
them in derision." 

V. But this leads us to observe, finally, that tlw 
doubting of the scoffer will not prevent the execution 
of GocTs threatenings. 



E. WILSON. 17 

The punishment of the lawless and disobedient 
may be regarded as essential to the well-being of 
human government ; and no principle of the divine 
government is more fully established than this, viz. 
that God will by no means clear the guilty. Both 
the law and the gospel declare that " the wicked 
shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that 
forget God." "According to their deeds accordingly 
he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his 
enemies." "Though hand join in hand, the wicked 
shall not be unpunished. For he that believe th not 
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God 
abideth on him. He shall break them with a rod 
of iron ; he shall dash them in pieces like a potter's 
vessel." 

What, then, is the scoffers strength, which he can 
exert in opposing himself to the truth and power. of 
God? His feeble arm can oppose only a doubt and 
ridicule. With these he encourages himself to wage, 
as he fondly hopes, successful war against Jehovah, 
and the highest interests of his illimitable empire, 
as if Omnipotence was inadequate to crush every 
opposing power which the sinner can raise. 

Oh what madness ! what extreme folly ! u He that 
planted the ear, shall he not hear ? he that formed 
the eye, shall he not see? he that chastiseth the 
heathen, shall not he correct ?" 

But if the truth of revelation fails to enlighten 
and restrain the impenitent, they are nevertheless 
without excuse; for much of the nature of God, 
and of their duty, is revealed to them by the light 
of creation and providence. " Because that which 
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God 



18 FOLLY OF DOUBTING GOD'S THREATENINGS. 

hath showed it unto them." For the invisible 
things of Him, from the creation of the world, are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
made, even his eternal power and Godhead ; so that 
they are without excuse. And if they regard neither 
the light of revelation nor providence, yet have they 
not the law of conscience, which is sufficient to es- 
tablish the justice of their eternal condemnation? 
for all men do naturally the things that the law 
requires, which proves that they have a law in them- 
selves, ' since they frequently act according to its 
rule. The work of the divine law is written in their 
hearts, by which they discern the difference between 
right and wrong — what is just and what is unjust. 

If evidence can attest the truth, and facts evince 
the certainty, of the purpose of God to punish the 
disobedient, then the actual execution of all his de- 
nunciations could not furnish stronger ground of cer- 
tainty than that which God has already given. Un- 
less, therefore, one of two things can be proved, either 
that God does not intend to execute his threatenings, 
or that his power is inadequate, the destruction of 
the scoffer is inevitable. For if Jehovah has pur- 
posed by his only begotten Son to introduce and 
maintain his kingdom in the world, will he not, as 
all powers and agencies are under his control, roll 
onward unchecked the mighty wheels of his eternal 
government, though beneath them lie crushed his 
guilty feeble foes ? 

God's immutable justice, holiness, and truth de- 
mand the immediate and eternal punishment of the 
wicked, but through his abundant grace and mercy 
he condescends to expostulate with them, saying, 



E. WILSON. 19 

" As I live I have no pleasure in the death of the 
wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and 
live ; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why 
will ye die ?" How strongly marked, therefore, is 
the folly of those who not only doubt the execution 
of God's threatenings, but also despise the riches of 
his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, 
and dare to mock at every thing sacred. 

God has predicted their fearful and eternal destiny, 
saying, " I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will 
mock when your fear cometh ; when your fear com- 
eth as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a 
whirlwind ; when distress and anguish cometh upon 
you." " Then shall ye return and discern between 
the righteous and the wicked, between him that 
serve th God, and him that serve th him not. For 
behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven ; 
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly 
shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn 
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave 
them neither root nor branch. But unto you that 
fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise 
with healing in his wings." 

Take heed, brethren, the professed disciples of 
the Lord Jesus, " lest there be in any of you an evil 
heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." 
" Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about w T ith 
truth, and having on the breastplate of righteous- 
ness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the 
gospel of peace ; above all talcing the shield of faith, 
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
darts of the wicked." "Let your light so shine 
before men, that they may see your good works, and 



20 FOLLY OF DOUBTING GOD'S THREATENINGS. 

glorify your father which is in heaven." And in 
due time ye shall receive the fulfilment of the 
promise, that " they that be wise shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament, and they that turn 
many to righteousness as the stars for ever and 
ever." 

But, dear reader, are you still walking after your 
own lusts, and saying, in the language of the scoffer, 
" Where is the promise of his coming ? Where is 
the God of judgment?" The riches of God's good- 
ness and forbearance may be despised, his warnings 
and threatenings may be contemned, "but know 
thou that for all these things God will bring thee 
into judgment." Does not your own experience 
confirm the truth of God, that the way of transgres- 
sors is hard ? If, therefore, your way is dark and 
portentous, what shall the end be ? 

Thus saith the Lord, "If I whet my glittering- 
sword, and my hand take hold on judgment, I will 
render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward 
them that hate me." Despise not thou the gracious 
invitations of redeeming love and mercy. Cease to 
incur the displeasure of Jehovah by doubting the 
execution of his threatenings. While it is the 
accepted time, fly to the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
secure, by repentance and faith, a refuge in him. 
For " he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see 
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." If thou 
be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, but if thou 
scornesL thou alone shalt bear it. 



THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

BY 

J. T. SMITH, D. D. 

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BALTIMORE, MD. 



For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul? — Mark viii. 36, 37. 

These questions are not of precisely the same 
import. They are addressed, indeed, to the same 
individuals, and relate to the same subject; but 
the individuals addressed are supposed to be placed 
in different circumstances, and the form of the ques 
tion is modified accordingly. The first contemplates 
the condition of a man who has his chosen portion 
in this life, and demands of him the profit, " if he 
should gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul." The second contemplates the condition of a 
man in the world of despair, whose soul is already 
lost, and demands what he would be willing to give 
" in exchange for his soul." Both questions relate 
to the comparative worth of the soul. They affirm, 
in the most emphatic manner, that it is of more 
value than the whole world ; and, upon the ground 
of its surpassing worth, they press the great duty 
of labouring first and chiefly after its welfare. I 

(21) 



22 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

propose to detach the prominent idea of the text 
from the specific relations and connections in which it 
there stands, and to make the worth of the soul, 
abstractly and absolutely considered, the subject of 
my discourse. 

Need I here say one word to secure attention to 
this subject ? You are proud of your extensive pos- 
sessions, and you do not soon grow weary in telling 
over the sum of your riches. You have one trea- 
sure of great price, however, which you may never 
yet have rated at its full value. I propose, in this 
discourse, to estimate the worth of this treasure, and 
thus to show how rich' you are. When such is my 
purpose, may I not hope for an earnest and inter- 
ested attention? 

Two distinct and independent tracks of illustra- 
tion open up before us. We may enter upon a 
direct inspection of the soul itself, and from a sur- 
vey of its nature, its capacities, its powers, and its 
destination, infer its value ; and then we may take 
a wider range, and gather illustrations from without, 
and from the deep interest which higher orders of 
being take in its welfare ; and from the high esti- 
mate which God places upon it ; and from the history 
of its creation ; and from the still more marvellous 
history of its redemption, demonstrate still further 
its value. 

I. We are to sit in direct inspection upon the soul 
itself, to see if there be any thing in its nature, or its 
endowments, or its destination, which may serve our 
purpose. And 

1. As to its Nature. Exhaustless variety is a 
striking characteristic of the works of God. It was 



23 

long ago remarked, that in the whole universe no 
two things can be found exactly alike. Resem- 
blances we find every where, perfect similitude no 
where. And the remark holds good, not only of 
the external appearances of objects, but of their 
intrinsic worth. From the tiniest insect, one, rank 
of being rises above another in excellence, till the 
whole terminates in that great sum of all excellence, 
that grand climax of all being — God. High up in 
this scale of value is found the human soul, standing 
at the head of all earthly existences, and ranking 
just a little lower than the angels. 

The human body, delicately, curiously, and beau- 
tifully framed, is accounted the perfection of mate- 
rial nature — the very master -piece of the great 
Architect. But the body feels not, thinks not, 
wills not, acts not. It is but the blind tool of the 
agent within. Emotion, thought, hope, happiness, 
have their seat in the soul. The soul is yourself, 
the body is a mere appendage which you carry about 
with you, as you do your clothes. Your high pre- 
rogatives, as man, are all conferred upon you by the 
soul, and it alone elevates you above the dust. The 
body is built of the clay you tread beneath your feet 
The eye, wonderful as is its mechanism, multiplied 
and spirit-like as are its uses, is nothing but painted 
dust ; and the whole fabric is built of what you may 
see in the " deep damp grave." The confession so 
often on our lips, " we are but worms of the dust/' 
is not the language of excessive humility. It is the 
plain, unvarnished truth. Whether we look to the 
origin or the end of these, our tabernacles of clay, 
we must own their fellowship with the worm. 



24 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

What material object, then, can be compared, as to 
its value, with the soul? What utter insignificance 
does the apostle stamp on the whole material uni- 
verse, when he tells us, " All these things shall be 
dissolved !" 

Next above material organism comes animal 
instinct. And what are the instincts of animals 
but the reason of God ? What teaches the bee to 
construct its cell, and the spider to weave its web, 
and the stork to build its nest on high ? Who 
warns the birds of the approach of winter, and 
guides them, unerringly, in their long flights over 
trackless deserts and wide seas, without map or 
compass ? The instinct of animals is the reason of 
God, prompting them to provide for their present 
and sensual wants. But the soul is endowed with 
an independent reason. Her instincts rise out of 
her own being, up towards God, and onward to- 
wards immortality — and over all, conscience, God's 
vicegerent, keeps watch and ward. 

The soul introduces us into the higher walks of 
existence, giving us fellowship in the world of 
spirits, and companionship with God, and angels, 
and "just men made perfect," and partnership in 
their pleasures — the pleasures of intelligence and of 
virtue. If by the body we are linked to dust, by 
the soul we are allied to God. If by the body we 
say to the worm, " Thou art my sister," by the soul 
we are made the fellows of seraphim ! What 
strange extremes unite in our being! The con- 
necting link between God and the inferior creation. 
Our foundation in the dust, we aspire towards 
Divinity ! The soul is of the highest order of exist- 



J. T. SMITH, D. D. 



25 



ence — for God and angels are spirit. Immeasurably 
inferior to these, indeed, in the appendages and ex- 
pansion of its being; in nature it is precisely the 
same. And across the wide chasm which now sep- 
arates it from God, his voice is distinctly heard, and 
hopefully responded to — " Be ye perfect, even as 
your Father which is in heaven is perfect." What 
means the strange language — " Transformed from 
glory to glory into the image of the Lord" — " made 
partaker of the divine nature ?" We can pardon 
the sublime dream of Plato, that the human soul is 
a portion of the divine essence — a fragment of Deity 
imprisoned in dust. It is of most excellent nature. 
Nothing on earth equals it — nothing in heaven sur- 
passes it. Consider, 

2. Its endowments. Activity, power, intelligence, 
moral agency, infinite progression, are among its 
higher attributes. Passing these, however, we would 
remark specially upon the capacity of happiness, 
perhaps the highest prerogative of spirit — " Man's 
chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever." 
If these £nds of our being are not identical, they are 
at least inseparable ; and the last grand purpose of 
our being is "to enjoy." 

Happiness is a thing of which the visible world 
can furnish no emblem to those who have never ex- 
perienced it. To be understood it must be felt. 
The gold which kindles such joy in the miser's 
heart, feels not the emotion it imparts. The hea- 
vens, which awaken the poet's fancy, and expand, 
to something of their own dimensions, the astrono- 
mer's intellect ; which point the devotee upward to 
God, and scatter gladness, beauty, and life so lav- 






26 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

ishly over the earth, feel in themselves nothing of 
the glory or the gladness they impart. The sun is 
cold amidst his own beams — the stars are dark 
amidst their own radiance. Though so glorious to 
us, they are nothing to themselves. The earth is 
joyless, amidst all the pulses of joy which beat upon 
her surface. When the great Creator had made 
all — air, land, and sea, and filled them with exhaust- 
less sources of happiness, he brings man, places him 
in the new made world, and says, The power to 
enjoy is yours; look around, above, beneath, all is 
exquisitely fitted to minister to your pleasure. 

Every fountain of happiness in the outward world 
has some channel opened up, through which it emp- 
ties itself into the soul. Has nature her harmo- 
nies ? — the ear conveys them to the soul. The eye 
ranges over all that is beautiful and sublime in the 
universe of God, and carries back its discoveries to 
the soul. And thus, by her organs of sense, the 
soul ranges at will over the universe, and lays all 
nature under contribution to her happiness. But 
she has sources of joy, aye and of sorrow t$o, within 
herself; and it is when she shuts up the inlets of the 
external world, and retires within hei'self, that she 
finds the highest rapture or the profoundest despair. 
Uncover the soul of a saint, see his perfect peace, 
his high communings, his glorious hopes — there is a 
heaven there, were there none without ! Uncover 
the soul of a sinner, see his remorse, his despair, his 
malignant passions, his fearful apprehensions of 
" wrath to come," there is a hell there, were there 
none without ! 

The soul's capacity to suffer and to enjoy we 



27 

cannot fathom. Do you ask, How much can I enjoy ? 
We can but point you to those exhaustless materials 
of enjoyment provided ; to your memories of all you 
have enjoyed; to your imagination, and your hopes; 
the many forms of happiness of which you can con- 
ceive, for which you hope, and of which you feel 
yourself capable. Nor can we tell how much you 
could suffer. Remember your head aches and 
heart aches; your pains and your sicknesses. Re- 
member your disappointments, your fears, your de- 
spair. Have you ever felt remorse ? But were the 
capacity of suffering filled to its full measure, we 
cannot tell, an angel's tongue cannot tell, how much 
you could suffer. And the capacity to enjoy and 
to suffer, stamps the soul with a value passing all 
calculation. 

This is but our embryo state, and we cannot, even 
in imagination, fix any limit to the soul's progres- 
sion. Give it a more delicately constructed — a 
spiritual body ; give it senses more perfect in them- 
selves, and in their adjustment to the objects of the 
outward world ; let its eye have a wider range, a 
more piercing scrutiny; let its ear be more finely 
attuned, and its nerves increased in sensibility; 
give it new senses to discern those hidden elements 
of nature which now escape its closest scrutiny; 
remove its pride, its passions, its carnality; and 
then, when fitted for heaven, place it there. Afar 
from these earthly sources of pain and sorrow, sur- 
rounded with all heaven contains to happify, and 
who can tell what it shall become where its pro- 
gress is ever accelerating, where every experience 
acquired enlarges the basis for future acquisitions, 



28 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

where every exertion put forth strengthens for a 
bolder and loftier attainment. Follow its ascend- 
ing way on, and on, till imagination tires, and then 
think of it stretching on, and on, beyond that point 
out through the untold ages of eternity ! Consider, 

3. Its Destination. And here we might construct 
an impregnable argument for the immortality of the 
soul, out of the materials already collected in this 
discourse. The surpassing excellence of its nature, 
and its high endowments bespeak its immortality. 
For it consorts not with the wisdom or the known 
ways of God, to suppose him to endow it thus highly, 
and yet give it neither time nor facilities to develope 
and exercise its powers. Why give it capacities 
which are never unfolded? capabilities which are 
never called forth ? powers which can go out into no 
adequate exercise ? Its imperfect and undeveloped 
condition here is irrefragable evidence of its exist 
ence hereafter. Here it is the chrysalis — there the 
winged angel of light. This is its childhood — that 
its manhood. Did this life bound its being, it were 
but a gorgeous mockery, a solemn cheat. 

The idea of eternity baffles and confounds concep- 
tion. You are foiled in every attempt to compass 
it, because you have no measures by which to effect 
the computation. Take your own life as a measure ; 
lay it along side of eternity, and it dwindles away to 
utter nothingness in the comparison. Take the six 
thousand years which have elapsed since the crea- 
tion of the world ; multiply them till numbers fail ; 
still you have not reached a starting point in the 
computation. Conception is still at fault. Years, 
ages, cycles of ages, will not serve for measures of 



J. T. SMITH, D. D. 29 

eternity. It absorbs all duration, and then stretches 
on, undiminished and unimpaired, to infinity beyond. 
No addition can increase it; no subtraction can 
lessen it. It has no measure, and it defies all con- 
ception. 

It seems a long time to the prattling child to look 
forward to the gray hairs of eighty years. It seemed 
a long time to the spirits who first entered the land 
of darkness and despair, to look forward through the 
many ages of pain, and woe, and wailing which 
must elapse before the judgment of the great day. 
It seemed a long time to Abel, when he saw his 
name written first in heaven's register, to look for- 
ward through unnumbered ages till the last name 
should be written there. But these long periods of 
time all pass, and when looked back upon, seem but 
an hand-breadth. But there is no past in eternity; 
no future, no starting point, no goal, no beginning, 
no end. Now the existence of the soul merges into 
eternity ; and here our conception of it is lost. It 
claims half the eternity of God. If not without be- 
ginning of days, it is without end of years. If not 
from everlasting, it is to everlasting. 

How terrible the thought of an eternity of pain, 
an immortality in hell ! The sting of the worm is, 
that it never dies ! The fierceness of the fire is, 
that it is not quenched ! How long eternity must 
seem when its every moment is lengthened out by 
misery ! Imagine a lost soul ages hence, seated in 
its dungeon, or rolling in the fiery lake, and this 
may be its sad soliloquy : 

" These limbs are not yet consumed. I feel no 
symptoms of death. I am stronger to suffer to-day 



30 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

than when I first felt these flames. And ever, as 
they burn higher and hotter, I feel my strength to 
endure, enlarging with them. I have tried to count 
the long years as they rolled by, but in vain. I 
cannot tell how many ages are gone ; but eternity 
is still to come. I have wished, I have prayed, ! 
how earnestly, for death — but it mocks my prayer, 

' I feel my immortality o'ersweep 
All pains, all fears, all time, all years ; 
And, like th' eternal thunders of the deep, 
Proclaim this truth — Thou livest for ever/ " 

Brethren, who among us shall dwell with the 
devouring fire ? Who among us shall dwell with 
everlasting burnings ? Shall it be yourself, or the 
neighbour, the friend, the child sitting by your side. 
Who shall it be among us ? 

How transporting the thought of an immortality 
in heaven ! Imagine yourself for a moment there. 
With many of you it will be but anticipating what 
a few more days shall reveal. Sit down amidst the 
general assembly and church of the first born 
above — amidst patriarchs, and prophets, and apos- 
tles, and martyrs, the greatly good of every age 
and of every land, who are all contemporaries there. 
Go with Paul to his glorious mansion — standing 
near, perhaps next, to the throne ; and look on the 
many mansions in your Father's house, stretching 
off on every hand in long perspective ! Wander 
with Baxter along the banks of the river of life, as 
it comes gushing from the throne of God, and rolls 
its glad waters afar over the plains of heaven ! Sit 
down with Payson under the shade of that tree, 
which bears twelve manner of fruits, and gives from 



J. T. SMITH, D. D. 31 

its leaves healing and immortality to the nations ! 
Rejoin the company of those who have gone up from 
your own fireside, and taken their crown ! Among 
them all " there is no more death, neither sorrow, 
nor crying, nor pain." God himself has wiped 
away tears from off all faces. In the midst of the 
innumerable multitude, there is one " as it had been 
a Lamb slain." To him every eye is turned ; before 
him every knee is bowed ; at his feet every crown is 
cast ; and from unnumbered harps, and from unnum- 
bered voices, blended in heaven's loudest, sweetest 
song, swells high the anthem, " Worthy is the Lamb 
that was slain" — "unto him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood." To be 
ever " with the Lord" — this is the very heaven of 
heaven. 
II. In passing to our second general topic, we notice, 
1. The interest manifested for the soul by the 
higher orders of beings. We are not isolated or 
companionless in the universe. We are not alone, 
with God, even in the world. " Millions of spiritual 
beings walk the earth, both when we wake and when 
we sleep." Invisible to us, we are well known to 
them; and sharing a common spirituality, sub- 
jected to the same high authority, children of the 
same great Parent, they can have fellowship and 
family sympathy with us. The powers of darkness, 
with all their might and malignity, are leagued 
against us. Why did Satan tempt our first parents to 
their fall? Why does he so impiously usurp, and, 
as a strong man armed, so desperately defend, the 
empire of the soul ? All along the way to heaven, 
is not every step contested ? Are not all who travel 



32 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

there called to the wrestling u with principalities, 
and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in high 
places ?" Have you ever thought that the spirits of 
darkness hold a sleepless watch over you, and 
brave afresh the threatening thunders of Omnipo- 
tence, to maintain their mastery over you ? When 
some subtle suggestion of evil has glided into your 
mind, or some sudden and lion-like temptation has 
fiercely sprung upon you, have you ever thought it 
came from hell — the result of counsel and delibera- 
tion there held ? 

And the holy angels — what wakeful sympathy 
and intense solicitude do they feel for us ! Minis- 
tering spirits as they are, they leave heaven on no 
errand so gladly, as to minister to the heirs of sal- 
vation. " There is joy in heaven, among the angels 
of God, over one sinner that repenteth." The very 
first movement of repentance in the sinner's bosom, 
sends a wave of joy over all their bright and bliss- 
ful abodes. "This our 'brother that was dead is 
alive again, the lost is found." 

Were you, reader, while your eye is upon this 
page, to repent, we can tell you what would take 
place in heaven. The angels, who are watching 
around you, would send up some messenger with 
the glad tidings. As he sped upward with joyful 
haste, the band who stand at heaven's gate, or bend 
over its battlements, to receive messengers from dis- 
tant worlds, would descry his approach, and come 
forth to meet him ; and, as they learned the joy- 
ful tidings he bore, they would gather eagerly around 
him, and conduct him through the gates into the 
city, and over its golden streets, and amidst its tro- 



oo 



J. T. SMITH, D. D. OO 

phied palaces, to the eternal throne. And all the 
inhabitants of heaven would be gathered, by procla- 
mation, about him there ; and your name and your 
repentance would be proclaimed aloud ; for you are 
well known — known by name, in heaven; and 
they would call for the Book of life, and write, or 
rather read, there your name, and they would call 
for the book of God's remembrance, and blot out 
the record of your sins ; and they would publish and 
proclaim your right to share with them, thenceforth, 
in the tree of life and in the holy city. And God, 
the eternal Father, would be well pleased that an- 
other rebel was subdued, another soul saved; and 
Jesus, the blessed Saviour, would see of the travail 
of his soul, and be satisfied ; and the Holy Spirit 
would rejoice over his new and glorious creation; 
and angels would rejoice, that their brother, their 
younger brother, whom they had long mourned for 
as dead, was alive again ; and the saints would 
raise high, and still higher, their anthem, " Worthy 
the Lamb that was slain." And perchance the 
mother* who watched over your infancy, or the 
father who counselled your manhood, or the beloved 
friends who have gone before you to the spirit- 
world, w T ould press through the throng, and Oh what 
speechless joy would thrill through their bosoms! 
And there would be joy in heaven, more joy in 
heaven over you, than over all those myriad hosts 
of bright and unransomed spirits who have kept 
their first estate. u There is joy in heaven over one 
sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and 
nine just persons that need no repentance." 

2. Let us take our stand upon another theatre — 
4 



4 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 



amidst the opening scenes of creation. For long 
unchronicled ages, God dwelt alone, the sole inhabi- 
tant of space. From his solitary throne he beheld 
not an atom, nor a living thing; all was a mighty 
blank, a vast and empty void. God spake — and, 
responsive to his voice, planets, and suns, and sys- 
tems sprang forth out of nothing. He poised the 
sun on its axis, balanced the planets in his 
hand, and marked out every star its pathway in 
the heavens ; and the vast solitude of space, which 
but yesterday was empty, was filled with a uni- 
verse of mighty, and moving, and peopled worlds. 
He spake, and the earth came forth out of nothing. 
It appeared in a hitherto empty place, without 
foundation, without support; suspended upon no- 
thing — a huge, and formless, and floating chaos; and 
a thick darkness, a moonless, and rayless, and star- 
less night, brooded over it. God spake — and there 
was light. And the wild waters flowed together 
into one place, and the dry land appeared, clothed 
with greenness and fertility, and order and beauty 
sprang forth from the very bosom of chaos; and 
the earth was fitted up as a well appointed man- 
sion for living things ; and exhaustless supplies were 
provided and garnered up for the provision of all their 
wants. But as yet there were no living things to 
partake or enjoy. God spake — and air, and land, 
and sea, were filled with a crowded population ; the 
waters were stored with fishes, the fowls ascended 
on outspread wings towards heaven, and the dry 
land was covered with myriads upon myriads of 
living things, from the little insect which sports in 
a drop, or peoples a leaf, to the giant Behemoth 



35 

which shakes the solid world with his tread. All 
these fed upon the bountj^, and shared in the good- 
ness, of the great Creator ; and the hum of activity, 
and the voice of joy were heard over all the peo- 
pled earth. And the great Creator looked down 
upon the world which he had made, and filled with 
life, and sensation, and happiness, and said, " It is 
good !" 

And shall the work of creation terminate here ? 
Shall nature he furnished with no anointed priest ? 
Shall God have no worshippers ? Among all the 
myriad tribes of his creatures, shall there be none 
like himself? none to love, to reverence, and to 
adore him for all his goodness and his wonderful 
works ? And was it for soulless creatures of dust, who 
are incapable of progression here, and whose existence 
must terminate for ever at death, that God reared 
up the mighty fabric of the universe ? No. The 
work is not yet complete ; the last and crowning 
product of creative power is yet to appear. " And 
God said, Let us make man." There was no consul- 
tation when the sun was made — none when the 
heavens were spread abroad as a curtain, and em- 
broidered with stars. He just spake, and it was 
done ; he commanded, and it stood fast. But now, 
when the lord and governor of earth is to be created, 
there is a pause, a preparation, a consultation. 
Let us make man. So, as the result of this counsel, 
so God created man. A simple word sufficed for 
the creation of all things else. A word called the 
earth out of nothing, and evoked order out of chaos, 
and the body of man out of dust. But a far higher 
instrumentality is employed in the creation of the 



36 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

soul. " God breathed into his nostrils the breath 
of life, and man became a living soul." A word is 
a thing foreign and external to the individual utter- 
ing it; a breath is an emanation of himself. And if 
all that God created by a word was alien from him- 
self, the soul is the very " inspiration of the Al- 
mighty." And it is like God, modelled after him ; 
a miniature likeness of him, as finite may be of in- 
finite. " Let us make man in our image, after our 
likeness." If God had minded his power, his wis- 
dom, and his goodness, in the other works of his 
hand, he would mirror himself entire in the human 
soul. For nothing but a spiritual and immortal 
nature could bear the full image and superscription 
of the Most High. His own image and representa- 
tive, the soul, was invested with God's prerogatives 
— knowledge and dominion. Every where else the 
dominion of blind physical force was established, 
but the power of knowledge was conferred upon 
man. By this he was to disarm physical force ; curb 
and direct the fury of the mightiest elements ; sub- 
ject the lower tribes of creation to his bidding; and 
have the dominion, not of the strong arm, but of 
the intelligent will over all the earth. Let them, 
(thus runs the great charter,) " let them have do- 
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
earth." And when God had thus made man he 
said, " It is very good." And he blessed them, and 
u the morning stars sang together, and all the sons 
of God shouted for joy." With such high endow- 
ments, and in the midst of such august preparations, 
was man ushered into being, and proclaimed the 



lord and governor of earth — " a king and a priest 
unto God for ever and ever." Every circumstance 
connected with his creation, from the pause and the 
consultation which preceded, to the emphatic "very 
good" which crowned it, shows the high estimate 
which God placed upon the spiritual and immortal 
nature of man. 

3. Let us take our stand upon another and a 
higher theatre; amidst the surpassing wonders of 
redemption. In creation the goodness of God ope- 
rated freely without restraint or hindrance. No 
attribute of his own nature, and nothing without 
himself, interposed the slightest obstacle in the way 
of his breaking up the eternal silence and solitude 
of space, and peopling it with worlds. A simple 
volition, a naked putting forth of Omnipotence, was 
all it required to create. He spake to dust, and 
there rose up a human body. He breathed into that 
body, and man became a living soul; that is all 
man's creation cost him. But in redemption there 
were hindrances in the way; hindrances which 
Omnipotence alone could not remove. There was 
a compensation to be made, a satisfaction to be ren- 
dered, a harmony to be adjusted among the divine 
attributes, and a security to be obtained for the 
highest interests of all God's intelligent creation, 
before Omnipotence could stretch forth its arm to 
redeem. The very term redemption has a relation 
to price ; and from the cost of the soul we may deter- 
mine its real value. For it is a known law of divine 
action, that means are always accurately adjusted 
to ends — that more, or more costly means, are never 
employed than those which are necessary to effect 



38 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

the end ; and the price paid for the soul is thus a 
fair and an infallible index to its value. 

Now, we know the cost of the soul's redemption. 
Ci Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood," is 
the song of the redeemed in heaven. " Ye were not 
redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and 
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." Where 
shall w r e find terms or illustrations wherewith to set 
forth the greatness of this price ? Does not the apos- 
tle plainly intimate that we have no ideas at all ade- 
quate to this subject, when he tells us that we were 
not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver 
and gold. It is by these " corruptible things" our 
ideas of value are represented. But "they that 
trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the 
multitude of their riches" — the Barings and the 
Kostchilds of the earth — " none of them can by any 
means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom 
for him." Let the princes of the earth heap their 
gold, and their silver, and their precious stones 
together; let the earth disembowel herself of her 
treasures, and the ocean give up her gems — and they 
cannot redeem a soul, for " the redemption . of the 
soul is precious," too costly to be bought at such a 
price. It was himself the great Kedeemer gave for 
us ! Not a single act of obedience, or of suffering ; 
not a treasure from his coffers, or a limb from his 
body, or a single pang of his Immanuel-mind — but 
himself. " He loved us, and gave himself for us." 

Come, then, and view this " unspeakable gift." 
Come with angels, and see the great Kedeemer 
stooping down from the throne of Godhead, laying 
aside his kingly crown, emptying himself of the 



J. T. SMITH, D. D. 



39 



worship and the blessedness of heaven. We know 
something of what he stooped to, but how little we 
know of what he stooped from ; how little we know 
of what he forsook ! Come with the shepherds to 
the manger of Bethlehem. And has the Lord of 
life and glory stooped so low ? If an angel should 
voluntarily become a man, or a man a worm, it were 
for a wonder. But for Christ to descend so low — 
to cross the infinite chasm which separates him 
from the loftiest angel — to pass below angels — to de- 
scend the chain of being so far — to stoop from the 
majesty and blessedness of Deity down to the 
weakness and the infirmities of humanity — this 
passes wonder ! God became man — a stable, a 
manger — not even a palace or a tapestried chamber. 
No wonder the shepherds said one to another, " Let 
us now go even to Bethlehem, and see this thing 
which has there come to pass." Come with the 
chosen disciples to Gethsemane. See the God-man 
stretched all night long in agony upon the ground ! 
See the sweat, as it were great drops of blood, 
gushing forth and bathing his body. Listen to his 
cries of anguish, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
even unto death." " ! my Father, if it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me !" " Was ever sorrow like 
unto his sorrow ?" Come with the disciples to Cal- 
vary. See the victim, whom they have scourged 
and condemned to death, approach. A crown of 
thorns is pressed upon his bleeding brow — a heavy 
cross is laid upon his lacerated shoulders — and the 
rabble of Jerusalem are following him, with cruel 
mockings, as he is dragged along through the streets. 
" It is their hour, and the power of darkness !" They 



40 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

drive the nails into his hands, and feet, and then 
thrust the spear into his side. For six hours he 
hangs upon the accursed tree — bleeding, dying. 
There was not a friend to be near, or to comfort him 
then. Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Jewish priests, 
and Roman soldiers gathered, in stern array, around 
his cross, and wagged their heads upon him. He 
complains not of the friends who had forsaken him, 
nor of the enemies who so cruelly entreat him ; nor 
of the nails or the spear, the vinegar or the gall. 
But one cry of anguish escapes him, " My God ! my 
God ! why hast thou forsaken me !" To be forsaken 
of God — that was the cup he trembled to drink — 
yet he did drink it to its very dregs. 

But why all this ? " God so loved the world as 
to give his only begotten Son" for its redemption. 
Not that he needed the world, for the word which 
created could destroy. His breath could have 
blotted it out of the universe, and called into being 
ten thousand other worlds, unblighted by the curse, 
and peopled by beings higher and holier than we. 
What was that world which God so loved ? Not 
this material world, for it is but dust, and soon will 
be burned with fire. Not these bodies, for they too 
are dust, and soon will be nothing but food for grave- 
worms. What was that world which God so loved? 
That miniature world in your own bosom. In his 
estimation it was too precious to be lost — too pre- 
cious to be annihilated; and he gave the most 
hoarded and priceless treasure in his whole empire 
to purchase it ; and Christ from the throne of hea- 
ven stooped down to the pain and the ignominy of 
the cross to redeem your soul. 



J. T. SMITH, D. D. 41 

But the payment of the purchase-price alone can- 
not redeem the captive. It is the office of the Holy 
Spirit to embellish and beautify. He is at once the 
beautifying spirit of the material, and the sanctify- 
ing spirit of the moral, universe. Where he comes 
not, all is darkness and chaos ; where he comes, all 
is light, and order, and beauty. In the first creation 
the earth " was without form and void," and " dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deep," until the Spirit 
came and brooded over the chaotic waters. In the 
new creation, he fits up a world of moral light and 
beauty out of darkness and chaos. The souLJs in 
ruins ; her jarring and discordant powers at war 
with each other, and with God ; and the darkness of 
ignorance, of error, and of sin, broods gloomily over 
her. The Spirit descends, and moves upon this spi- 
ritual chaos; rebuilds and embellishes; and, though 
active voluntary resistance is put forth against him, 
though often grieved, and often quenched, never 
tires in his work, until the soul is crowned with 
more than its pristine honour and glory, and fitted 
for the " inheritance of the saints in light." Even 
in her deepest degradation the whole Godhead 
gather around the soul, to raise it up again to hea- 
venly places ; and in the mystery of its redemp- 
tion we find the grand crowning evidence of the 
worth of the soul. 

Allow me, in conclusion, to gather up this whole 
subject, and throw its entire weight, as an emphasis 
upon the question of our text — " What shall it 
profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and 
lose his own soul ?" It is but a small portion of the 
world any one individual can hope to possess. You. 



42 THE WORTH OF THE SOUL. 

however, are supposed to obtain the whole. The 
dream of universal dominion is realized by you. 
You are crowned a monarch; the broad earth is 
your empire, and you reign without a rival or a foe. 
Every land pours its treasures into your coffers. 
Gold and silver and precious stones glitter around 
you. The luxuries of every climate are spread 
profusely upon your table. Crowds of obsequious 
servants anticipate your slightest wish. When you 
appear, in your gilded equipage, among the multi- 
tude, they say, " It is a God." And to the remotest 
corner of your empire — in the snow huts of the pole, 
and under the spreading palms of the south — your 
praises are sung, and all delight to " do you reverence." 
They watch your slightest look, and chronicle your 
every word, and obey your every nod. Pleasure waits 
evermore in your train, and holds her enchanted cup 
continually to your lips ; and you have no wish un- 
gratified, no hope unfulfilled — for you have gained 
the whole world. And what will all this profit you, 
if you lose your own soul ? Will it fill the aching 
void within ? Will it ease you of a single pang ? 
Will it rob death of his sting? Will it pour the 
light of life and immortality into the darkness of 
the grave ? Will it buy you a single drop of water, 
when you are tormented in the quenchless flames ? 
Will it bribe you an entrance, through the gates, into 
the city ? And where will be your empire, when 
the world and all things therein shall be burned with 
fire ? You may now feel but little solicitude about 
your salvation. Amidst the pressure of your busi- 
ness, and the hurry of your pursuits, and the tu- 
mult of your passions, heaven and hell may seem 



J. T. SMITH, D. D. 43 

too far off to demand much attention. Amidst the 
clamourings of the appetites, and the distractions of 
the outward world, the soul may seem too impal- 
pable — its wants and its aspirations too ethereal — 
its rewards and its punishments too spiritual, to share 
largely in your thoughts. There is a strange mad- 
ness in the human heart. While all heaven and all 
hell are bending over you with unutterable solici- 
tude, and enlisting their sympathies and their mighty 
activities in your cause, shall you alone be thought- 
less and indifferent amidst all the movements which 
are circling around you? Have you alone no in- 
terest at stake ? Why stand you here all the day 
idle ? Just starving for the bread of life, wherefore 
"spend your money for that which is not bread?" 
Your eternal salvation to work out, wherefore "spend 
your labour for that which satisfieth not?" Can you 
sleep under the uplifted thunderbolts of angry Om- 
nipotence ? Can you go smiling and sportive onward^ 
when " your way is dark and leads to hell ?" " Awake, 
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ 
shall give thee light." 



THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 

BY 

WILLIS LORD, D. D. 

PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, CINCINNATI, OHIO. 



This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. — 1 Tim. i. 15. 

Let us analyze this saying. Let us separate its 
ideas, that we may give to each a distinct, though 
brief, consideration. Let us seriously mark their 
aspect and bearing with reference to our own cha- 
racter, course and destiny. 

I. " Christ Jesus came." "We bid you notice this 
fact as essential to the power and glory of the evan- 
gelic doctrine. The grandeur of the person gives 
grandeur to the truth affirmed concerning him. 

For whom do the words "Christ Jesus" desig- 
nate? Beyond question, the Son of God. They 
do indeed express only the name he bore after the 
incarnation ; but by constant usage of the scriptures, 
they then denote the person who became incarnate. 
Differing modes of existence and manifestation did 
not destroy the divine and eternal personality. 
The Word was made flesh, but in the flesh thus 
made he was still the word. 

The affirmation, then, is of a divine person — the 
Son of God — second in the mysterious subsistence 

(44) 



45 

of the infinite three. He came. Not an angel of 
light; not a saint in glory; not Gabriel, who 
ministered peradventure nearest the burning throne ; 
not Moses or Isaiah, most exalted perhaps among 
the redeemed. No — not they; but He came by 
whose power Gabriel and his angelic associates were 
created, and by whose blood the lawgiver and the 
prophet alike were saved. At that sublime moment, 
when the eternal counsels were about to be express- 
ed in the great acts of redemption, and because 
the exigencies of lost men transcended the wisdom 
and power of all creatures, it was the voice of Christ 
Jesus which broke upon the silence of heaven — 
" Lo, I come to do thy will, God !" 

The fact is incontestable — its importance and 
grandeur infinite. For how can the purpose and 
endeavours of such an one fail ? What possible 
contingencies can arise, not foreseen by his omnis- 
cience ? What combination of difficulties so great, 
that they must not vanish before his wisdom and 
power ? If God undertake for the lost, no matter 
how extreme and appalling their state, they will 
be rescued. 

This truth, we repeat, is essential. It is the foun- 
dation of the Christian system. If the victim on 
Calvary was not the incarnate Word — God though 
man, and man though God — the hope of salvation, 
by his obedience and death, is a dream. It may be 
thought by some consoling, inspiring, joyous, but 
it is a dream, to be dissipated for ever when we 
enter the grave. There never was a more absurd 
notion, than that salvation can be achieved for sin- 
ners by a creature. Show me that Christ Jesus 



46 THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 

was not truly divine, and, by the same argument, I 
will show you that he cannot be a Saviour. And 
if he be not, who is ? What shall dying men do, 
if they may not rest their souls on Christ, as the 
Son of God — the brightness of the divine glory, and 
the express image of the divine person ? What can 
they do, but die without hope — yea, die for ever ! 

II. This divine Being came, continues the text, 
into the ivorld ; i.e. into this world. 

Very many worlds God has made, of still greater 
extent and magnificence than this, to circle with it, 
in its majestic course around the centre of the sys- 
tem ; but in no other have been enacted the scenes 
of redemption. It is an exclusive distinction of this 
world, that by the Church redeemed and existing on 
its bosom, is made known unto principalities and 
powers in heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of 
God, according to the eternal purpose, which he 
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Bethlehem and 
Calvary are here. The garden of that untold agony 
— the sepulchre, hewn out in the rock, where the 
Prince of life lay in the embrace of death — the 
Mount of Olives, whence he ascended, leading cap- 
tivity captive — all these are here. 

The influences of the cross doubtless, indeed, reach 
to the outmost limits of God's vast creation, making 
manifest, as could have been done by nothing else, 
the wisdom, love, power and glory of J ehovah. But 
here the cross was reared. Its base was imbedded 
in the soil of earth ; its top was fanned by the air 
and bathed in the light which fall upon us. Christ 
Jesus came into this world ! 

How did he come ? 



D. D. 47 

Not merely, does the apostle mean to say, in his 
essential and universal presence, as God. In this 
sense our world has been his dwelling-place from 
the morning of creation. His arm has upheld the 
stupendous structure. His power has constantly 
renewed the face of the earth, and carried forward 
all the processes and operations of nature. For as 
he created, so does he sustain all things by the 
word of his power ; by him all things consist. 

Nor did he come, does the apostle mean to say, 
in the form and presence, which anciently he so 
often assumed, as the angel of the covenant. It 
was thus he appeared to the patriarchs and saints 
of former dispensations. It was thus he was present 
with Abraham at that strange sacrifice on Moriah, 
and the day before the fiery overthrow of Sodom 
and Gomorrah. It was thus he revealed himself to 
Jacob at Peniel, in that wondrous conflict wherein 
the patriarch prevailed with God. It was thus he 
went before his people in the wilderness, when he 
said, Surely they are my people, they will not lie ; 
so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he 
was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved 
them, and he bore them, and carried them all the 
days of old. 

It was another and more marvellous presence of 
the Son of God the apostle contemplates — his pres- 
ence by incarnation in the son of Mary, in reference 
to which the angel said to the shepherds, " Unto you 
is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the 
Lord." " Who being in the form of God, and 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made 
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the 



48 THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 

form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of 
men." For "forasmuch as the children are par- 
takers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
part of the same." And so " the Word which was in 
the beginning with God, the Word which was God, by 
whom all things were made, and without whom was 
nothing made which was made ; the Word became 
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full 
of grace and truth." 

In this manner " Christ Jesus came into the 
world." It is a stupendous truth. It would exceed 
belief, as it does comprehension, did it not rest on 
the testimony of God ; and if, furthermore, immeas- 
urably vast and mysterious as it is, we could not see 
its divine adaptation and imperative necessity in re- 
ference to us as sinners. We have been startled, 
my brethren, at recent and passing political events. 
They seem to us great — momentous. To see kings 
abdicating; thrones and princedoms falling; the 
masses, so long trampled beneath the hoofs of power, 
rising ; and then the re-action, the crushing again of 
hope, the re-ascendance of despotism, and the sup- 
pressed heavings of outraged humanity, while the 
whole aspect of human things becomes dark and 
perilous — oh, how all this engrosses the minds of 
thoughtful men ! And yet inexpressibly tame, 
trivial, empty, are these things, in comparison with 
the unique, unparalleled, infinite truth, that Ci Christ 
Jesus came into the world ;" that being God, he was 
found in fashion as a man; that occupying the 
throne, and receiving the adorations of the universe, 
he came down to the dependance of a creature and 



WILLIS LORD, D. D. 49 

the reproach of worms ; that the source of all au- 
thority, he made himself subject to law ; and the 
fountain of all life, he came under the power of 
death ; that, compelled by no perils that were invad- 
ing his presence, but moved by the miseries which 
were overwhelming us, he came ; that, the King of 
kings, and the Lord of lords, he came to raise us to 
his own blessedness, to invest us with his own glory, 
to make us kings and priests unto God for ever ! 

For mark, now, the complete statement of the 
text, that, 

III. " Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners /" We must form our estimate of Christian- 
ity from its real nature and design. If we conceive 
of it wrongly, we shall judge of it unfairly. In its 
influence indeed on all the faculties, and all the in- 
terests of men, it bears the proof of its divine 
source, and of its power for good. It has amelior- 
ated the physical condition of the race ; it has given 
impulse and expansion to the mental powers ; it 
has imparted tenderness and purity to the social and 
domestic affections. Civilization has followed in its 
progress. Commerce and the arts have flourished 
in its presence. Literature and science have felt no 
other influence so genial and enriching. Where it 
has reigned, law has become the expression of justice, 
and government the safeguard of liberty. It is im- 
possible to over-estimate the legitimate and benign 
effects of the gospel of Christ, on the entire condi- 
tion of men, as the denizens of this world, as well 
as the heirs of immortality. 

But, then, these effects have all been indirect and 
secondary, as compared with the main purpose for 

which " Christ Jesus came into this world." That 
5 



50 THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 

purpose was " to save sinners" If you contemplate 
his mission and work apart from the light of this 
vast central truth, you may yet see much in them to 
admire, but you will fail to comprehend their real 
grandeur and glory. Jesus Christ, my brethren, was 
far more than a social or civil reformer, attempting 
to dry up the streams of human degradation and 
misery, while he left untouched their prolific and 
inexhaustible fountain. He was far more than a 
master in philosophy, who came to solve the problems 
of science, and elaborate systems of morals and meta- 
physics, after the manner of Plato or Aristotle. He 
was far more than a jurisconsult or statesman, whose 
mission it was to announce legal and political max- 
ims, and propose models of constitutions and govern- 
ments. He was a Saviour ! The objects of his grace 
were sinners. They had broken the law of God. 
They had incurred his holy displeasure. They had 
yielded themselves as the bond-slaves of Satan. They 
were therefore sinking, helpless and hopeless, to eter- 
nal ruin. Christ Jesus came to save them. 

How save them ? In the evangelic sense, what 
is salvation? The inquiry is important. In the 
scriptures themselves the term is relative. It is 
sometimes used without any reference to that great 
spiritual and eternal deliverance contemplated here. 
A man may be saved from sickness, danger, fear ; 
from a great variety of evils, merely temporal. The 
term, therefore, must have its meaning in each sev- 
eral instance, from that of which it is the contrast. 
Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Salvation, then, 
in this case, must be understood by the present charac- 
ter and condition of those who are to be its subjects. 



WILLIS LORD, D. D. 51 

Who, then, and what are sinners ? In what condi- 
tion are they ? They are those who have apostatized 
from God, and broken his law. That law is perfect, 
eternal, unchanging. Its demands can never be miti- 
gated — its sanctions must be enforced. It is prepos- 
terous to think of any other alternative. The earth 
and the heavens may pass away, but the law of God, 
in its undiminished authority and extent, and its re- 
tributive power, must remain for ever. It cannot 
pass away. 

The effect of this violation of the law is twofold. 

In the first place, it changes the relations of men 
to the divine government. They are thenceforth 
condemned. The fearful penalty of sin is denounced 
against them. Its execution may be delayed, but 
at length it must come. From the absolute perfec- 
tion of the law, there is no possibility, for one who 
has sinned, of regaining his position and immunities 
as an innocent man. Guilty he must remain. The 
penalty, therefore, must be exacted. It is eternal 
death. 

In the second place, it changes the affections of 
men towards God. The very nature of the soul is 
vitiated by sin. What was pure and perfect becomes 
defaced and polluted. Love to God gives place to 
aversion and hate. All the moral faculties are per- 
verted and defiled. Selfishness becomes the master 
principle or affection. Self, the reigning God. If the 
divine law, therefore, did not forever bar sinners from 
heaven, and subject them to woe, their own depraved 
nature and sinful passions would. 

The salvation of sinners, consequently, has respect to 
their legal condemnation, and their moral depravity. 



52 THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 

To be effectual, it must remove the curse of the law 
which is upon them, and it must form them anew in 
the likeness of God. Under this conception of it, 
" Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 
Immense, we repeat, and never enough valued, are 
the benign influences of his coming and work on the 
social, intellectual, and political condition and pros- 
pects of men. He gave the most salutary precepts. 
He enjoined and exemplified the most pure and hea- 
venly affections. He announced the essential princi- 
ples of truth and righteousness, and demanded of all 
men, through all time, affectionate and holy submis- 
sion. His words have been light to the mind, and 
life to the soul. Wherever they have been permitted 
to go forth in their fulness and purity, they have 
regenerated society, and remodelled governments. 
They are achieving social and civil results now, in 
view of which hoary oppression trembles. 0! if 
while they are giving to the masses the knowledge 
of their rights, they shall also be received far enough 
to awaken within them the sense of their responsi- 
bilities — to lead them to identify rational and endur- 
ing liberty with the spirit and principles of the gov- 
ernment of God — w r ho can express what scenes of 
prosperity and happiness may yet appear ! If men 
will obey the gospel — Europe, yes, the world shall 
be gloriously free. If they w r ill not do this, agita- 
tion and revolution are in vain. Despotism may in- 
deed give place, at every now and then, but only to 
a more desolating anarchy. And anarchy, after a 
little, will lash itself into exhaustion, and subside in 
the embrace of a still more absolute despotism. The 
essential elements and means of social well-being, 



WILLIS LORD, D. D. 53 

mental elevation, and political freedom, are in the in- 
structions and institutions of Jesus Christ. 

The mission, however, of the divine Redeemer re- 
lated directly and chiefly to the souls of men. He 
came to save sinners. Is it inquired again, How save 
them ? The answer is, by delivering them from the 
condemnation of the broken law, and by renewing 
them after the image of God, in righteousness and 
true holiness. This is salvation. Less than this 
is not salvation. 

But this question, thus answered, throws us back 
on a greater question. How can sinful men be de- 
livered from the curse of the law ? Helpless they 
are. They cannot meet its demands. They cannot 
satisfy, except by enduring its terrific penalty. While 
they are condemned by it, and utterly without 
strength, it must remain, in its precepts and its sanc- 
tions, unchanging and eternal. How, then, can sin- 
ners be saved ? 

In the verdict of enlightened reason, two condi- 
tions must concur in order to this result. 

The principle of substitution must have a place in 
the government of God. As by no possibility those 
who are condemned by the law, can deliver them- 
selves from its curse, it results, that if they are saved 
at all, it must be by the interposition of some one 
not thus condemned, in their behalf, who can and 
will meet for them its claims and its penalties. If 
in their case there can be no substitution, there can 
be no salvation. 

This substitution, moreover, must be made by one 
whose personal character is not only holy, as for in- 
stance, an unfallen angel, but who also is not origin- 



54 THE FAITHFUL SATING. 

ally subject to the law. It would be manifestly im 
possible for any one, whose own obedience was de- 
manded, and to the extent (as from the essential per- 
fection of the law it must be) of all his affections and 
faculties, to render an obedience in behalf of others. 
This condition, therefore, excludes every creature, 
whether man or angel, from the work of saving sin- 
ners ; for every creature is under law — under law 
which exacts and exhausts his whole powers in 
obedience for himself. To find that a qualified sub- 
stitute for the guilty, we must go beyond the sphere 
where the law of God has jurisdiction ! And where 
is that ? Oh ! where is that ? No where, except 
within the splendors of the uncreated glory ! No 
where, except with reference to Him who sits upon 
Godhead's throne ! The result is clear and irresista- 
ble. There must be a divine Saviour, or there can 
be no Saviour ! 

The inquiry was one of infinite moment; will 
God interpose ? Will He, whom we have sinned 
against, and by whom we are so righteously con- 
demned, will he, can he, interpose ? Thanks unto 
his name, grateful as we can render and eternal as 
our being, God has interposed ! " Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners !" The simple, yet 
wonderful announcement, involves all that we have 
thus represented as indispensable to salvation. For 
gather up now into one view what it does involve. 

The Word was God. He was God before he came 
in the flesh. He remained God after he thus came. 
The two natures, in mysterious union, constituted 
one divine person, Jesus Christ. He owed no obe- 
dience to the law, therefore, on his own account. 



WILLIS LORD, D. D. 55 

He was the supreme Lawgiver. His subjection to 
it was voluntary, even when he became incarnate. 
He was made under the law, not as the inseparable 
result of his being born of a woman, but according 
to his own will, that he might redeem them which 
were under the law. His whole obedience, therefore, 
and his whole endurance, were available for those for 
whom he obeyed and suffered. 

For this interposition of the divine Redeemer was 
not for himself. It was vicarious. It w r as made on 
the declared principle of substitution — the just for the 
unjust. Indeed, as it could not be on his own ac- 
count, who had never sinned, and needed no salva- 
tion, it must have been for the sake of others. And 
so the constant testimony is, " he bore our griefs and 
carried our sorrows. The chastisement of our peace 
was upon him." " He bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree." 

Substitution involves imputation. The two are 
inseparable. They are essential parts of one whole. 
If Christ obeyed the divine law, and endured its 
penalty in my stead, and for my benefit, that obedi- 
ence and endurance are mine, by being set to my ac- 
count ; or what is precisely the same thing, by being 
imputed to me. And this truth is perfectly intelli- 
gible. Men recognise it, and act in accordance with 
it, in the most common, as well as the most weighty, 
affairs of life. The principle on which it rests is in- 
corporated in all law, and exemplified in all govern- 
ment. It is worse than folly to attempt to expel it 
from the word and government of God. Despite all 
human opinions and reasonings it will remain eter- 
nally true, that " as by one man's disobedience many 
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many 



56 THE FAITHFUL SATING. 

shall be made righteous;" that God "hath made Him 
who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in him !" 

The result now of these truths is indeed glorious, 
In his incarnation, in his obedience, in his unexam- 
pled sufferings and death, Jesus Christ was the substi- 
tute for sinners. Who can express then the hope that 
thus comes to the lost ? For though he became man, 
that he might obey and might die, Jesus Christ was 
yet God. The worth, therefore, and the sufficiency 
of his atonement are immeasurable ; as much so as 
is his divinity. Contemplated in its essential nature 
and intrinsic efficacy, it is absolutely without limit. 
You may compare it to the horizon, which, as you 
approach it, ever recedes and widens. Or you may 
compare it to an ocean, whose depths reach no bot- 
tom, and whose waves break on no shore. But all 
comparisons fail, all language, and all thought, are 
beggared in the attempt to express or conceive the 
illimitable fulness and sufficiency of the atonement. 

But there arises a difficulty here — a difficulty which 
at times presses on serious and thoughtful minds. 
The penalty of the law is death. To meet and en- 
dure that was requisite in order to atonement. How 
could Christ Jesus endure this penalty? 

It is a difficulty, and perhaps it were both more 
wise and reverent to recognise the impracticableness 
of its full solution now, and silently wait for the 
light of eternity. Thus much, however, is obvious, 
that a penalty must adapt itself in its actual inflic- 
tion to the nature, and be affected by the dignity, of 
the being on whom it may fall. So the penalty of 
the divine law, while remaining the same in its own 
nature, must manifestly become different in some re- 



WILLIS LORD, D. D. 



spccts when inflicted on different orders of creatures, 
as on angels, and on men. Hence this point has 
sometimes been represented thus : " All creatures 
must endure the penalty of the law, if it fall on 
them, for ever, because they are finite. The eter- 
nity of their woe is thus incidental ; i. e., it results, 
not of necessity from the law, but from their nature. 
The duration of suffering, therefore, is not absolutely 
necessary to the proper infliction of the penalty by 
ichomsoever endured, but it is thus necessary when 
endured by those who are finite ; i. e., by creatures. 
The Son of God, however, was not a creature. By 
virtue of his divine, and, therefore, infinite nature, or 
being, he could exhaust in a limited period that 
penalty which a creature could never exhaust. It 
indeed assailed him. It beat upon his humanity. 
It bore him to the very gates of hell, but his divinity 
broke the fierceness of its power. It cried out for 
blood. Its cry was inexorable — unceasing. Along 
the flight of weary centuries, it had made even the 
altar and the temple of Jehovah's worship the place 
of slaughter. Nor could it be satisfied with the life 
of beasts. It kindled on the souls of men. It drank 
up their spirits. It burned on from generation to 
generation. But when it reached the sacrifice on 
Calvary, the son of man, yet also the Son of God, 
its rage was spent, its power destroyed. It could 
not long grapple for the mastery with an uncreated 
arm. It kindled fiercely on his humanity, and wasted 
it. It burned towards his divinity, and expired!" 
" He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
being made a curse for us!" 

It is thus, brethren, that Christ Jesus saved sin- 
ners from the condemnation of the law. The re- 



58 THE FAITHFUL SATING. 

maining exigency of their condition he meets by 
sending into their souls the Holy Spirit. By his 
presence and power they are made alive from the 
dead ; they exercise new and sacred affections ; they 
become partakers of vast and immortal hopes ; in 
every taste and susceptibility of their moral being ; 
they are formed and fitted for the glorious and eter- 
nal kingdom of God. So great, so entire, so endur- 
ing is the salvation by Jesus Christ. 

IV. In reference to all this we now add, "it is a 
faithful saying! 9 It is no more immense and won- 
derful than it is true. It is to be believed, there- 
fore, without fear and without hesitation. Every sin- 
ner this side of death may rest his soul on it securely. 

The testimony of God demonstrates its truth. Over 
and over again the Scriptures present us with the 
doctrine of atonement by Jesus Christ. Every where 
they reveal him as a divine person ; though now, for 
the purposes of redemption, in mysterious but real 
association with humanity. Every where they re- 
present his obedience even unto death, and in death 
as vicarious, as in the place and for the benefit of 
sinners. With the clearness and vividness of a sun- 
beam they trace these words, and such as these — 
"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities ; on him was laid the ini- 
quity of us all." In the view of his cross, and as 
the divine solution of the appalling sacrifice there, 
they exclaim, u Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be 
the propitiation for our sins !" Yea, that " God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life !" 



WILLIS LORD, D. D. 59 

The influence, moreover, of this blessed doctrine, 
when it is really received, demonstrates its truth. 
All those effects which it is designed to produce are 
realized. The sinner is forgiven. He has peace with 
God. He has the witness of the Spirit. His affec- 
tions are changed. The objects of his supreme de- 
sire and pursuit are new and sacred. He takes plea- 
sure in spiritual things. He becomes increasingly 
like Christ. His life is a service to God. His death 
even is a victory over death, and his eternity is hea- 
ven. 

Yes, beloved brethren, it is a faithful saying. Pa- 
triarchs believed it, though to them the great sacri- 
fice was still in the distant future. Prophets fore- 
told it in their most glowing and majestic strains, 
and they trusted in what they thus foretold. Apos- 
tles proclaimed it, and rejoiced that they might seal 
their testimony with their blood. Martyrs confessed 
it, and its celestial power was that which took their 
terror from the fiercest flames. Multitudes in every 
age have borne witness by lives of holiness and deaths 
of triumph, that " Christ Jesus came into the world 
to save sinners !" Oh ! men and brethren, must the 
sacred succession stop? Shall this faithful saying 
have no more witnesses here ? Is it possible that you 
should feel you do not need the blood of atonement ? 
Or can you suppose for a moment, that in the flow 
of ages its fulness is exhausted ? You do not need 
it if you have never sinned. It is exhausted, if that 
which is infinite can fail. But neither the one nor 
the other of these things is true. You have sinned— 
often, long, fearfully. The atonement of Christ re- 
mains, and will remain, in its undiminished fulness 
and glory ; and, therefore, worthy, 



60 THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 

V. As the apostle finally adds, " worthy of all ac- 
ceptation." The meaning is, it is worthy of a prompt, 
cordial, grateful, whole-souled reception by sinners, 
and by all sinners. 

Shall we stop to say, that all sinners need this sal- 
vation? They do need it. No necessity can be 
more obvious or more imperative. Under the divine 
government, where there is sin, there must be atone- 
ment, or there must be death. This necessity 
grounds itself in the divine nature. Justice is an 
essential, and therefore immutable attribute of God. 
It is inseparable from his being, as much so as his 
spirituality — his infinity — his almighty power. 
Should he therefore cease to be just, he would cease 
to be God. For him, therefore, to pass by or forgive 
sin, on the ground of mere sovereignty, or expedi- 
ency, or general benevolence, irrespective of the 
great principles and claims of justice, we hold to be 
impossible ; as clearly and inexorably so, as it would 
be for him to be unjust. The necessity of atone- 
ment, therefore, in the case of sin, and if it be par- 
doned, is absolute. Where it is not found, the sin- 
ner must die. Are you sinners ? You need then 
an atonement. You all need it. There are no 
creatures in the wide universe who have a more per- 
sonal or a deeper interest in the saying — that 
" Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 
In the truth of his atoning sacrifice is your only 
hope for eternity. In your acceptance of and reli- 
ance on that sacrifice, by faith, is all your salva- 
tion ! 

Or shall we detain you to repeat that this salva- 
tion is sufficient for all sinners ? It certainly is thus 



WILLIS LORD, D. D. 61 

sufficient. We speak, of course, of its essential na- 
ture and fulness. Viewed in itself, the sacrifice on 
the cross has a worth and adequacy absolutely un- 
limited. They are restricted only by the revealed 
purpose of God to apply the atonement to those 
alone who believe. This purpose does indeed exist; 
and, like God himself, it is immutable. How 
could it be otherwise ? No remedy can be effective, 
unless it be applied. It may possess the most un- 
questionable and powerful healing properties — but 
what will these avail, if the diseased and the sick 
will not use it? God gave his Son, that whosoever 
helieveth in him may have everlasting life. But, 
wonderful as was this gift, illimitable as were the 
virtue and merit of the sacrifice so made, he that 
believe th not must perish. It is God's own aver- 
ment. The atonement itself, with all its fulness of 
grace, power and glory, cannot save those, who by 
unbelief persist in rejecting it as the ground and 
means of salvation. That there are such persons^ 
and will continue to be, the history of men and the 
word of God render certain. But the limitation of 
the atonement so resulting, is from causes external 
to itself. It remains still in its own glorious all- 
sufficiency. If sinful men will receive it and rely 
on it, no matter who they are, nor how many, nor 
how multiplied or grievous their sins, it will be 
effectual; it will save them. If they will not receive 
it, the die is cast ; there is no atonement for them ; 
they must perish in their iniquities. It is a result 
certain as the being of God. It is a result demanded 
and secured by every principle of fitness and right, 
by the perfection of the divine character, and the 
inviolability of the divine government. 



62 THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 

Do you, then, believe in Christ ? Will you believe 
in Christ ? In this case the atonement is divinely 
sufficient. There is not a sin against you, in the 
book of God, which, in view of it, will not be for- 
given. There is not a stain of guilt upon your soul, 
which, through its efficacy, will not be washed out. 
There is not a want of your immortal being, which, 
for the Redeemer's sake, will not be freely and for 
ever supplied. Oh, it is indeed " a faithful saying, 
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners !" 

My brethren, worldly themes occupy you. Truths 
like these seem to you perhaps foreign, unattrac- 
tive, spiritless. The scenes of time, which ever flit 
by you, like shadows, are in your view real and im- 
portant. Well, they are so. They have a signifi- 
cance deeper than you are aware. They have a rela- 
tion to eternity, solemn and fearful. They have an im- 
perishable record before God ; a record to be read in 
the judgment. But forgetful of this significance and 
this relation, you contemplate these scenes in only 
their present aspect. Such is their power over you, 
that we fear you will still turn away from the cross, 
but if you do, remember, " Christ dieth no more !" 
We fear you will still close your hearts to the glori- 
ous truth, that u Christ Jesus came into the world 
to save sinners ;" but if you do, remember " there 
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins!" The great 
work of expiation is finished. It stands before you 
God's amazing provision for the wants of men ; 
unexampled — sufficient — alone. In view of it, he 
demands now your decision. It is for you to receive 
Jesus Christ and live — or to reject Jesus Christ and 
die. 



THE RULING PASSION. 

A SERMON TO YOUNG MEN. 

BY 

W. B. SPRAGUE, D.D. 

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY, Jf. Y, 



The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. — Eccu 

viii. 11. 

In connection with 
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 

soul, and with all thy mind. — Matt. xxii. 37. 

There is scarcely any thing in relation to which 
men are so jealous as their own rights ; and scarcely 
any question, which they scan with such severe 
scrutiny, as who shall be their rulers. Let some 
important post of civil authority be about to be 
filled, and you will hardly find a man in the com- 
munity who is indifferent to the pending question ; 
and not improbably there may be a tempest raised, 
that will make the very foundations of society rock. 
And so, too, men are eagle-eyed to discern the first 
symptoms of oppression. If rulers are disposed to be 
tyrants, their subjects quickly find it out ; and even 
if they have not the courage to resist, or complain, 
they are still galled by the yoke, and would make 
an effort to throw it off, if they could. Liberty 
every man regards as his dearest possession; and 

(63) 



64 THE RULING PASSION. 

whoever discovers a disposition to trifle with it, need 
not marvel, if he is met with the spirit of resist- 
ance. 

But it happens, a little strangely, that those who 
are so jealous of any external encroachment upon 
their rights, too often manifest little or no concern 
in respect to the more important dominion in their 
own bosoms. They will spare no pains to investi- 
gate the character of the candidate for some paltry 
office, the influence of which may only slightly 
affect them, while yet the world within may be com- 
pletely subject to one tyrant or another, without 
their ever taking note of the fact that they are op- 
pressed. In the hope of disturbing carelessness, and 
enlightening ignorance, on this subject, I design to 
address you on the euling passion — its nature — its 
origin and growth — its influence. 

The general topic upon which I am to dwell ob- 
viously connects itself with each of the passages 
which I have cited. The first — u the heart of the 
sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" — is a 
declaration that mankind not only, on the whole, 
prefer the wrong, but that they choose it, and pursue 
it, with the utmost intensity of purpose. ' The latter 

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 

heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" 
— is God's requisition upon the children of men, to 
give Him their supreme and perpetual homage. I 
have brought together the two passages, because one 
exhibits the ruling passion for evil — the other, the 
ruling passion for good ; and both will necessarily be 
brought into view, in the contemplation of the gen- 
eral subject. 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 65 

I. Our first inquiry respects the nature of the 
ruling passion. What is it that we designate by 
this appellation? 

The ruling passion, in the most general sense, may 
be defined — the concentrated energy of the soul. I am 
aware that this is a legitimate subject for philosophi- 
cal disquisition ; and that, viewed in this light, 
much might be said upon it, that would be both 
true and useful ; while yet the well-defined boun- 
daries of human knowledge should not be passed. 
But the time, the place, every thing connected with 
the occasion, limits me to the more practical view. 
The definition that I have given, is perhaps as plain 
as the nature of the subject will admit; but be that 
as it may, every individual may know infallibly 
what it is, if he will make suitable observation upon 
his own experience. 

The ruling passion may be considered in a more 
general, or a more restricted sense. 

In the more general sense, it consists in the preva- 
lence of a sinful or a holy temper ; in other words, 
in that state of the soul which constitutes man either 
the enemy or the friend of God. 

It is obvious, alike from Scripture and from experi- 
ence, that man, in an unrenewed state, lives chiefly 
for his own gratification ; that his chosen element is 
amidst the things that are seen and are temporal. 
This the Saviour expresses, by "loving darkness 
rather than light ;" and the Apostle, by " minding 
earthly things ;'*' and the wise man in our text, by 
" the hearts of the sons of men being fully set in 
them to do evil." And who need be told that all 
experience coincides with this record ? While there 
6 



66 THE RULING PASSION. 

are many professing to be Christians, who belie their 
profession by an apparently supreme devotedness to 
the world, how manifest is it that the multitude who 
make no profession, are actual idolaters of the world 
in some form or other ! Their thoughts, their affec- 
tions, the combined energies of their souls, are em- 
ployed upon, actually fastened to, the things that 
must perish with the using. It is by no means ne- 
cessarily implied that they are profane, or dishonest, 
or immoral in any sense ; or that they are destitute 
of naturally amiable and benevolent dispositions; 
or that they may not perform many acts that shall 
have an auspicious bearing upon the welfare of soci- 
ety, and even upon the interests of the church ; but 
after all, they are lovers of the world more than lov- 
ers of God. Their ruling passion is towards the 
earth. They have no heart to relish, nor even an 
eye to discern, the things that are spiritual. Such is 
the condition of man — of every man in his unre- 
newed state. 

But when the renovating act has once passed upon 
him, new objects of affection and pursuit rise before 
his mind, and its energies receive a new and corres- 
pondingly noble direction. From having had a heart 
fully set in him to do evil, his ruling desire now is 
to love the Lord his God with all his heart, and all 
his soul, and all his mind. True, he is yet a miser- 
ably imperfect being, and he often has occasion to 
lament that when he would do good evil is present 
with him ; and sometimes, perhaps, he is in doubt 
whether he is not still in unbroken bondage to his 
lusts. But whatever may be his imperfections, or his 
apprehensions, or his conflicts, the current of his soul 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 67 

is really moving towards God ; his strongest desire 
is, that God may be glorified in him and by him. 
And this desire discovers itself in a new course of 
action. It may not, indeed, be new in every sense ; 
it may not be new to the undiscerning eye of 
man ; for it is quite possible that the external de- 
portment of an unrenewed person, under the more 
general influences of Christianity, may be scarcely 
distinguishable from that of the true Christian ; but 
it is new to the heart-searching eye of God, because it 
is prompted by a new principle, and directed to a 
new end. 

I have said that the ruling passion, considered in 
a more general sense, is that sinful or holy temper 
which constitutes the moral state of man as the 
friend or enemy of God — in a more restricted sense, 
it is the particular form which that temper assumes — 
the channel through which the energies of the mind, 
whether working for good or evil, chiefly operate. 

On this point I may be contented to refer you to 
the results of your own observation. Whether you 
look into the world, or into the church, or, I may add, 
into your own hearts, provided you will compare 
your experience with that of others, you will find a 
diversity in the ruling passion corresponding to the 
variety of human pursuits. All bad men are alike 
in general — that is, in being supremely devoted to 
their own selfish gratification ; but they differ end- 
lessly in respect to the form in which the evil ten- 
dency develops itself. In one, the ruling passion is 
the love of wealth — in another, the love of praise — 
in another, the love of pleasure — in all, the love of 
the world. And the same remark applies to good 



68 THE RULING PASSION. 

men — while love to God and man is the great princi 
pie that presides over all their actions, and gives the 
general complexion to their character, even this 
principle discovers itself in a variety of forms — one 
may be more serious and devout, another more ac- 
tive and philanthropic ; one may become absorbed 
in one field of benevolent operation, another in an- 
other ; and the energies of each may be directed, 
possibly too exclusively, in his own particular chan- 
nel ; while yet the actions of all, when they come 
to be referred to the remoter cause, are found to be 
dictated by the same spirit. So much for the nature 
of the ruling passion. 

II. Our second inquiry relates to its origin and 
groivth. We shall still keep in view the distinction 
already recognised, considering it in a more general 
and a more restricted sense. 

If we consider the ruling passion as consisting in 
the general temper of the soul, constituting the in- 
dividual a sinner or a saint, we shall find, of course, 
that it has a different origin, as it partakes of a sin- 
ful or a holy character. 

In the former case, it is evidently to be referred 
to man's original apostacy. That mankind are born 
with a propensity to evil, is proved by the same kind 
of evidence that proves their original propensity to 
eat and drink ; for if the latter is developed a little 
earlier, the former discovers itself as soon as the na- 
ture of the case will admit — namely, with the first 
indications of moral agency. If there are any who 
choose to deny this fact, our appeal is to universal 
experience — even to those very cases which are 
brought to prove the opposite doctrine ; for amidst 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 69 

the utmost sweetness and loveliness that earlv child- 
hood ever exhibits, if you watch narrowly, you will 
find the workings of an evil propensity — evidence 
that the spoiler has been there, sowing the seeds of 
moral death. For the reason of this state of things, 
we can go no farther back than Paul carries us, when 
he says, "As by one man sin entered into the world, 
and death by sin, so death hath passed upon all men, 
for that all have sinned." Any other theory of the 
origin and transmission of human depravity than 
this declaration clearly implies, is unphilosophical, 
and inconsistent with palpable facts. I say then, 
man derives his sinful nature, his ruling passion for 
evil, directly from the great ancestor of the race. 
In the shock of the apostacy the gold became dim, 
and the fine gold was changed. 

And whence does the Christian derive his ruling 
passion for good ? I have, in a measure, anticipated 
the answer under the preceding head — from the re- 
novating, life-giving agency of the Holy Spirit. The 
Bible every where attributes this work to the Spirit, 
without, however, explaining minutely the manner 
in which it is performed. It is this to which the 
Prophet refers, when he says, " Not by might, nor 
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." And 
again, " A new heart will I give you, and a new 
spirit will I put within you ; and I will take away the 
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an 
heart of flesh." To this also the Saviour refers, when 
he says, " Except a man be born of the Spirit, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God ;" and the Apostle 
also, when he speaks of being saved, " by the wash- 
ing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Hoiy 



70 THE RULING PASSION. 

Ghost." The amount of all that we know on this 
subject is, that the Spirit of God operates in some 
mysterious way, by means of the truth, and in ac- 
cordance with the laws of our moral nature, to the 
production of a new moral state of the soul, a new 
ruling passion, a strong relish for those spiritual ob- 
jects which the individual once regarded with indif- 
ference or disgust. He is himself conscious of the 
change, from an inspection of his own inward exer- 
cises; and others take knowledge of him that he 
has been the subject of the change, as both his words 
and actions breathe a new and heavenly spirit. You 
may impute the change to something else than a di- 
vine agency ; you may say that there is some mys- 
terious power that resides in man's own will,by which 
spiritual life rises out of spiritual death; but the 
subject of the change repudiates such an intimation. 
He will tell you that he is a monument of divine 
grace, a living witness to God's mercy and power 
in the transforming work ; and that hut for this gra- 
cious interposition, his heart would still have been 
fully set in him to do evil. 

But if such be the origin of the prevailing temper 
or habit of the soul, both for good and evil, whence 
originates the particular form which the good or evil 
temper assumes ? In other words, whence origi- 
nates the ruling passion, considered in a restricted 
sense ? 

Doubtless it is to be traced in most instances, pri- 
marily, to the original constitution of the mind — 
to the elements of the intellectual and moral nature, 
as they are supplied by the Creator Himself. No 
doubt there is a diversity in the original character 



71 

of men's minds, corresponding to the variety which 
we see in their external appearance ; and hence we 
find that children of the same parents, educated by 
the same teachers, and subjected, so far as possible, 
to precisely the same training, not unfrequently be- 
come widely different in their characters ; and that, 
irrespective of that radical change which may, or 
may not, have been wrought in them by the Spirit 
of God. Here, no doubt, in all ordinary cases, is 
the seed of the ruling passion ; and the mother, if 
she is watchful, may not unfrequently detect its in- 
cipient growth, while the child is yet in the nursery. 
If you will write the history of the man, who, in a 
fit of revengeful passion, shed his brother's blood, 
and has had his own blood poured out as an offering 
to public justice — his mother, if she still survives 
to tell the story of his childhood, and if she could 
bring herself to speak out all that is lodged in her 
memory, would not improbably tell you that she saw 
that terrible passion in her son, while it was yet in 
embryo ; and that nothing has happened to him that 
was not shadowed forth to her anxious spirit almost 
before he left the cradle. And so, on the other hand, 
if you will trace the history of some individual 
whose life has been but an unbroken succession of 
deeds of mercy, and whose name quickens the pul- 
sations, and draws forth the tears, of the inmate of 
many a hovel, you will not improbably learn, that 
those who watched over his earliest years had often 
admired the beamings of a kindly and generous 
spirit in his infantile smiles. Not that there is any 
thing here to excuse vice ; for these evil propensi- 
ties belong to a moral agent, and he is bound to see 



72 THE RULING PASSION. 

that they are eradicated, instead of being indulged 
Nor is there any thing, on the other hand, of which 
the good man has occasion to glory ; for the graces 
of nature, not less than the Christian virtues, are 
from above — the former are the production of a 
creating, the latter, of a new creating agency. 

I have spoken of the origin of the ruling passion 
— let us now, for a moment, contemplate its growth. 
This is to be referred to the influence of habit and 
to the power of circumstances. 

It is a law of our nature that the repetition of any 
act increases the facility with which it is performed; 
and hence, we find that that which is originally diffi- 
cult soon becomes easy, and that which is, at first, 
indifferent, becomes, at no distant period, like a second 
nature. Notice the operations of this principle 
wherever you will, and you will always arrive at the 
same conclusion. I point you to the poor drunkard, 
who stands before you completely brutalized, though 
immortal ; whose nearest friends cannot bear to look 
upon him, because he is the very personification of 
idiocy or loathsomeness. There was a time when he 
was first conscious of the existence of that deadly 
appetite, and when he began to indulge it, he 
dreamed not how fearfully strong it was destined to 
become; but each successive act of indulgence 
strengthened the propensity, till now, as you see, it 
holds him with a giant's grasp. Look, too, at the 
miser! The passion for accumulating and hoarding, 
up may have originally had a prominence in his 
moral constitution ; but it was not so prominent, but 
that, in the earlier part of his career, he could some- 
times show himself public-spirited, and perhaps even 



73 

devise liberal things. By long continued indulgence, 
however, this sordid passion has gained the com- 
plete mastery over him, so that he is as deaf as an 
adder to the claims of charity, and even to the cries 
of absolute distress. And the same principle is 
illustrated in the growth of a habit of philanthropy. 
Wilberforce was originally possessed of warm and 
generous sensibilities ; but it was the fact of those 
sensibilities being always kept awake — the fact of 
his devoting his life to the cause of the negro's free- 
dom — that made him tower into such a glorious ex- 
ample of benevolence as the world has rarely seen. 
And if we consider the ruling passion in the more 
general sense, as denoting the sinful or holy nature, 
it is by this same influence — the influence of repeti- 
tion, that the sinner becomes more and more a sin- 
ner, the saint more and more a saint. Possibly, to 
the eye of man, there may be no very perceptible 
change, either in the one case or the other; but to 
the Omniscient eye the moral state of the soul is 
changing continually; not an action is performed, 
not a volition exerted, not a thought cherished, for 
good or evil, but it has some bearing upon the per- 
manent state of the soul — that which emphatically 
constitutes its character. 

The other influence, to which is to be referred the 
growth of the ruling passion, is that of circumstances. 
It is a familiar but true remark, that men's charac- 
ters are formed, in a great degree, by circumstances ; 
and this effect is produced chiefly through the devel- 
opment of the ruling passion. True, as we have 
already seen, this passion grows immediately by suc- 
cessive acts of indulgence, but then there is the 



li THE RULING PASSION. 



remoter influence of circumstances, in which these 
acts of indulgence usually have their origin ; and 
where the favourable circumstances do not exist of 
themselves, the ruling passion not unfrequently 
creates them, and then acts itself out by means of 
facilities of its own devising ; and, on the other 
hand, circumstances not unfrequently exert an influ- 
ence to neutralize, even to change, the ruling pas- 
sion. Let a child, in the first developments of its 
moral nature, betray a prevailing inclination to some 
particular form of vice, and then let it be placed in 
a condition which furnishes little or no temptation 
to that species of indulgence, and it is quite likely 
that some other propensity, originally of less strength 
than that, may gain the controlling power of the 
soul, and may keep it till the end of life. There is 
a tradition that Robespierre was originally of a gentle 
and sympathetic turn ; and that it was owing to his 
infidel and bloody training that those horrible pas- 
sions, which finally made him the terror of all his- 
tory, gained such a malignant ascendancy in his 
bosom. But whether this tradition be correct or 
not, it admits of no question that circumstances often 
decide what passion is to be in the ascendant; and 
that they sometimes decide in favour of one which, 
in its earliest actings, had betrayed no indications of 
uncommon strength. 

III. I pass now to the third and last general 
topic, viz : the influence of the ruling passion. 

And my first remark, in illustration of this, is, 
that this passion has the mastery of the whole in- 
tellectual, moral and physical man. 

It has the intellectual faculties completely under 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. id 

its dominion. It has its own ends to accomplish, and 
it employs these faculties as servants to aid in their 
accomplishment. See how this remark is illustra- 
ted in particular cases. Mark that individual, whose 
heart is supremely set upon the honour that cometh 
from men, and observe how his intellectual powers 
are all laid under contribution for the attainment of 
it. His perception and judgment are always in a 
wakeful state, that he may be able to avoid every 
thing that is adverse, to avail himself of every thing 
that is favourable, to his particular object. His 
memory is continually tasked, that he may take 
advantage of the lessons that are furnished by the 
past — perhaps by his own past experience, whether 
for good or evil. His reasoning faculty, his power 
of invention, is put into vigorous exercise, that he 
may, if possible, devise some new facilities for secur- 
ing to himself the plaudits of his fellow men. And 
when you have noticed how completely the whole 
intellectual man is brought into subjection, where the 
ruling passion is for the honour that cometh from 
man, look at another individual, and see how the 
same thing is accomplished, where the ruling pas- 
sion is for the honour that cometh from God only. 
What that devoted Christian is striving after, is a 
crown of immortal glory ; and which of his intellec- 
tual faculties, think you, finds a dispensation from 
the glorious work on which his heart is supremely 
set ? Is it the perceptive faculty ? But the eye of 
his mind is continually open to behold the truth, 
not only in its reality, but in its excellence and glory. 
Is it the judgment? But without this inconstant 
exercise, how is he to ascertain what is true and 



76 THE RULING PASSION. 

right; in other words, what he is to believe, and 
what he is to do ? Is it the memory ? But it is 
the memory that supplies him with his materials for 
gratitude and humiliation, for meditation and devo- 
tion. Is it the reasoning faculty? But it is by 
means of this that he is constantly growing in spi- 
ritual knowledge, and without it he could never be 
more than a babe in Christ. Believe me, the ruling 
passion for the heavenly crown allows no one of the 
faculties of the mind to remain unoccupied. I dc 
not mean that they are occupied to the extent tha. 
they might be or ought to be, for that would be to 
make no allowance for an only partially sanctified 
state; but I mean that they all act prevailingly 
under the influence of the controlling desire of the 
renovated heart — the desire to glorify God in the 
attainment of immortal glory. 

But the ruling passion extends its dominion to the 
moral man, as truly as to the intellectual ; in other 
words, it controls all the subordinate passions, includ- 
ing also the animal appetites, together with the higher 
principle of conscience. 

Observe, first, the influence which it* exerts in 
neutralizing, or keeping in check, those passions or 
appetites which, if their operation were not re- 
strained, would be found to conflict with it. If you 
were to judge of the miser by the coarse fare upon 
which he subsists, and the miserable tattered gar- 
ments in which he clothes himself, you would say 
that he had no taste to distinguish between the 
coarsest and most delicious food ; and that, as for his 
clothing, he would as soon appear in rags as in 
robes. But the truth is, he has, just like other men, 



Wi B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 77 

his own natural preference for at least decent food 
and clothing, and possibly he may have had origi- 
nally strong sensual or ostentatious tendencies ; but 
the ruling passion for hoarding up is keeping these 
other tendencies in check, so that you would scarcely 
know that they belonged to his original constitution. 
And you might arrive at a similar conclusion in re- 
spect to the devoted Christian. If you were to judge 
of him by the moderation which he discovers in re- 
spect to all worldly enjoyments, you might conclude 
that he had naturally little or no relish for them; 
whereas he may naturally possess a very strong rel- 
ish for them ; but his ruling passion for spiritual and 
heavenly enjoyments has so far prevailed, that it has 
brought him to look upon them with comparative 
indifference. No matter what form this passion 
may take, it will always show itself mighty to keep 
the other passions in subjection. 

Nay, it does more than this ; it exerts an influ- 
ence of a yet more positive kind, in rendering the 
other passions and appetites even subservient to its 
own ends. Let the love of fame, for instance, be 
supreme in the bosom, and see how it will employ 
the love of money in aid of its own gratification ; 
for great wealth confers a kind of distinction that 
ambition often greatly covets. Or let the love of 
God be supreme, and see how the naturally benevo- 
lent dispositions and sympathies, even the admira- 
tion of whatever is graceful, or beautiful, or sublime 
in nature, are all brought into exercise in aid of the 
homage that is due to the Almighty Parent. In 
every case, indeed, in which there is not an absolute 
contrariety between the ruling passion and the sub- 



78 THE RULING PASSION. 



ordinate principles of our moral nature, the former 
bends the latter to its purposes, constituting them, 
according to its own character, a good or evil minis- 
tration. 

Moreover, the ruling passion acts with mighty 
power upon the conscience — that principle of man's 
aature which confers upon him his highest dignity. 
And it does this in two ways — as it gives complexion 
to the testimony which the conscience renders, and 
<is it affects the character of the conscience itself. 

I may appeal to the experience of every one for 
the fact, that conscience has a mighty influence in 
rendering man happy or miserable ; and whether the 
one effect or the other is to be produced, depends 
upon its decisions in regard, either to particular ac- 
tions, or the general moral state of the soul. As the 
ruling passion is, indeed, nothing less than the moral 
state of the soul, from which also the particular ac- 
tions of the life take their complexion, it is obvious 
that this must supply the materials from which the 
decisions of conscience are formed ; and that, as this 
has a good or evil direction, supposing conscience to 
perform its legitimate office, the soul is the seat of 
peace and joy on the one hand, or of tumult and 
terror on the other. Who is that wretched being, 
who is holding a communion of agony with himself, 
in some solitude which man's eye does not pierce ? 
Ah ! it is a man, who, in obedience to the strongest 
impulse of his nature, has murdered his fellow, or 
done some other desperate deed, which at present is 
known only to himself; and there is not a single 
circumstance that would seem to indicate the least 
danger of exposure; and yet conscience mocks all 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 



79 



his efforts to be at rest, by filling his ear with sounds 
concerning the terrible future. And who is he that 
feels and evinces such a heavenly tranquillity, amidst 
the vicissitudes of life — that is not only patient, but 
even joyful in tribulation ? Why, it is a man who 
knows no desire so strong as that of glorifying God, 
and benefiting his fellow creatures ; and as he tra- 
vels on from day to day, in his beneficent and upward 
course, he is cheered continually by the whisper of 
an approving conscience, and tormenting fears find 
no lodgment in his bosom. In each case, this mighty 
inward agent has been moved to diffuse terror or 
peace through the soul, by the ruling passion. 

But this is not all; for the ruling passion affects 
the character of the conscience itself. What if the 
heart of an individual be fully set in him to do evil — 
do you believe that the conscience will be in no 
danger of sustaining an injury from such an influ- 
ence ? When the ruling passion first begins to ope- 
rate in a course of sinful indulgence, conscience of 
course remonstrates ; and as these remonstrances give 
pain, the mind is put upon devising some means of 
relief, without yielding up the favourite indulgence. 
And, generally, it does this by at first palliating, 
and afterwards excusing altogether the course upon 
which it is bent, calling evil good and good evil, 
putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. And 
this process, especially when long continued, is found 
to act upon the terrors of remorse like a charm, and 
conscience at length becomes so torpid, that the rul- 
ing passion can act with the fury of a whirlwind, 
and not awaken it. The conscience is not dead, 
after all, but it has become diseased, lethargic, insen- 



80 THE RULING PASSION. 

sible. And, then, on the other hand, what if the 
individual be under the controlling influence of a 
principle of love to God and man — do you imagine 
that there will be no effect exerted upon the con- 
science by the operation of this principle? I tell 
you there will be a mighty effect. While the con- 
science will bear testimony in favour of the ruling 
passion, and of the course of action to which it 
prompts, the ruling passion will, in turn, enlighten, 
and quicken, and purify the conscience. So we find 
it in actual experience. The farther the Christian 
advances in the spiritual life, the longer he has 
yielded obedience to the impulses of his regenerate 
nature, the keener his discernment becomes for the 
nicest shades of both good and evil. He walks in a 
region of spiritual light, and he is in little danger 
of mistaking the character of the objects which ap- 
pear in it. He is in intimate communion with the 
Lord of the conscience, and by such intercourse 
surely the conscience must be elevated and im- 
proved. 

I only add, under this article, that the power of 
the ruling passion extends to the physical nature. I 
have already intimated that it extends to all the 
animal appetites, unless indeed it may chance itself 
to be identified with one of them ; and then it will 
in some way exercise control over the rest, either 
by keeping them in check, so that they shall not 
interfere with itself, or else by making them minis- 
ter to its own gratification. It extends also to the 
whole body — the hands, the feet, the lips, move in 
obedience to its dictates. It extends not unfre- 
quently even to the bodily health, for where it hap- 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. 1). 81 

pens to be identified with any one of the animal 
propensities, it takes but little time for it to make 
perfect shipwreck of the body. And even where it 
is seated more directly in the mind — where, for in- 
stance, it is ambition, or covetousness, or revenge, it 
not unfrequently acts with a consuming energy 
upon the bodily constitution; while, on the other 
hand, where it takes a virtuous and benevolent 
character, operating in kindly affections and philan- 
thropic deeds, it ministers to the general health of 
the body, and even verifies the declaration of the 
wise man concerning Wisdom, that " length of days 
is in her right hand." 

A second general thought, illustrative of the influ- 
ence of the ruling passion, is, that it decides both 
the character and the destiny. 

It decides the character, inasmuch as it makes the 
man what he is ; for though the original materials, 
of which the character is formed, are supplied by the 
Creator, yet they are worked into one form or an- 
other, according to the direction which the ruling 
passion may happen to take. It is the ruling passion 
for evil that constitutes the sinner — it is the ruling 
passion for good that constitutes the saint ; and con- 
version is nothing else than a change of the ruling 
passion from evil to good. If we consider virtue and 
vice as operating through particular channels, then 
we may say that it is the ruling passion that consti- 
tutes the traitor and the tyrant on the one hand, the 
patriot and the philanthropist on the other. That 
this must decide the character in view of God, who 
searches the heart, is self-evident; for as it consti- 
tutes man what he really is, so Omniscience cannot 
7 



82 



THE RULING PASSION. 



but see things just as they are. And it decides the 
character also in the view of men. In all ordinary 
cases, it is so manifest as to preclude all just reason 
for doubt ; and even where there is a studied and 
constant effort to conceal it, it will be almost sure 
to work itself out through innumerable channels. 
Those even who attempt to practise the greatest 
duplicity — such are the arrangements of Providence 
— generally pass on the whole for nothing more than 
they are worth ; for though it may never have oc- 
curred to you to inquire what the ruling passion is, 
it is from your observation of the operation of that 
passion, in their daily conduct, that you form your 
estimate of their character. 

And if it decides the character, it decides the des- 
tiny, of course; for man's destiny is nothing more 
than the condition in which his character places him. 
In the present life, it must be acknowledged, that 
a man's external circumstances are, to some extent, 
independent of his character ; and he who lives only 
to curse society, and treasure up wrath against the 
day of wrath, may be surrounded by the splendours 
and luxuries of life ; may have every thing at his 
command to minister to a sensual or ambitious spirit. 
But the truth is, there is an illusion about this ; there 
is not the happiness here that there would seem to 
be ; and perhaps there are as many in these circum- 
stances who find thorns in their pillows, as there are 
in the humbler walks of life. But if a man's earthly 
condition is to be estimated by the amount of happi- 
ness which he finds in it, then, as a general rule, the 
character decides the destiny even here ; for there 
is that in virtue that will find sources of enjoyment 



83 

in adversity ; there is that in vice that will trans- 
mute the richest temporal blessings into a curse. 
And if this connection between character and destiny 
is manifest even in this life, much more will it be 
so in the future. Nothing less than this, surely, can 
be conveyed by the language of the apostle — " They 
that sow to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corrup- 
tion ; and they that sow to the Spirit, shall of the 
Spirit reap life everlasting ;" and by that declaration 
of the Saviour, which He makes as Judge of the 
world, " These," i. e. the wicked, " shall go away 
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into 
life eternal." The ruling passion then constitutes 
the character ; the character decides the destiny ; 
the destiny beyond the grave never changes. Who 
can estimate the influence of the ruling passion, 
when it is to decide the condition of both soul and 
body for ever? 

The power of the ruling passion may further be 
seen in the influence which it exerts upon other 
minds — upon a community — upon the world. 

There are various channels through which men 
exert an influence upon each other, and upon society 
at large. There is persuasion, here addressed to the 
private ear of a friend, and there, moving and melt- 
ing an immense assembly. There is example, which, 
though it operates silently as the dew, and by an 
influence not unfrequently unperceived by the indi- 
vidual who is the subject of it, yet often accomplishes 
its ends, where all other influences would fail. There 
is pecuniary contribution, which can assist largely in 
causing order and beauty to come forth where there 
was desolation, or in causing desolation to take the 



84 THE RULING PASSION. 

place of order and beauty. There is avil polity and 
military prowess, by which the destinies of states 
and nations are often settled. There is the press, 
all powerful to bless, all powerful to curse. There 
is prayer, that takes hold even of the Almighty arm. 
Now all these are but the instruments by which the 
ruling passion operates for the accomplishment of its 
purposes. It does not, indeed, always work directly ; 
and it may sometimes seem to be operating in one 
direction, when it is really operating in another; 
as, for instance, the love of fame may possibly make 
a man appear exceedingly humble, or self-denied, or 
benevolent, when in his heart he is an utter stranger 
to all these qualities. But, either directly or indi- 
rectly, the ruling passion exerts an influence upon 
the whole tenor of the life ; and when an individual 
finishes his earthly course, if you could get at the 
complete history of his ruling passion, you would 
have the, record of whatever he had done for the 
benefit or the injury of his race. 

Would you see what the ruling passion has been 
able to accomplish in some memorable instances? 
Look, then, at Napoleon. His ruling passion was 
the lust of dominion. And it nerved his arm till his 
arm became a rod of iron. It hardened his heart till 
his heart became a rock of adamant. It constructed 
yokes for the nations, as if they had been but cattle. 
He moved his hand, and a mighty city was swept 
off as with the besom of destruction ; he moved it 
again, and an immense army was struggling in 
smoke and blood ; and again, and the great ones of 
the earth came bending to him to take the chain. 
His career marked a new epoch in history. His influ- 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 85 

ence was like the whirlwind, except that the whirl- 
wind is the thing of a moment, but his influence will 
last for ever. Look at Washington. His ruling pas- 
sion was that of a patriot — it was the desire to see 
his country free, and good, and great ; and under its 
influence, he became the very personification of wis- 
dom, and valour, and magnanimity ; and while he 
broke the chain that bound us, bequeathing to us 
our inheritance in these glorious institutions, he set 
an example to the world, which has done more than 
any thing else to render the throne of the tyrant, at 
this hour, an insecure and uncertain thing, and 
which is destined to tell with mighty power on the 
ultimate civil regeneration of the world. And, 
finally, look at Paul, whose ruling passion was pre- 
eminently a desire to glorify his Master, and save the 
souls of his fellow men. How intrepid it rendered 
him in danger, how patient in suffering, how untir- 
ing in labour, how glorious in death ! And who 
shall tell how much he achieved for the benefit of 
the church and the world ? It was through his in- 
fluence especially that Christianity darted abroad 
among the nations like the beams of the morning ; 
that light came out of darkness, and life out of death, 
where darkness and death had for ages held their 
undisputed empire. And wherever, to this hour^ 
Christianity has set up her dominion, it is not too 
much to say that the hand of Paul has in some sense 
been in it ; for it is only the carrying forward of the 
work which he had the honour so gloriously to 
begin. Had he been constituted with the same 
powers that he actually possessed, and had his rul- 
ing passion been for blood and conquest — instead of 



86 THE RULING PASSION. 

being remembered in the thanksgivings of earth, and 
the yet higher thanksgivings of Heaven, his name 
might have appeared only on some dark page of 
history, as the name of a scourge and a destroyer. 

I only add, in illustration of this point, that the 
ruling passion is for ever growing stronger. It may 
indeed be changed from one direction to another — 
considered in the more extended sense, it always is 
changed in every case of genuine conversion \ and 
considered in the more particular sense, it is some- 
times changed, independently of conversion ; but it 
still remains true that, so long as it holds the as- 
cendancy in the soul, it is, on the whole, always 
increasing in strength — the only even seeming ex- 
ception to this remark arising from the decay of the 
faculties in which it may happen to be seated. Its 
operation in certain forms may indeed be temporarily 
suspended, through the influence of circumstances ; 
but let the circumstances change, and if the ruling 
passion be not changed, it will be found to have 
gathered fresh strength from the check that has, for 
a time, been imposed upon it. I have marvelled 
sometimes to see how strong it has been in adversity, 
and even in death. I have seen the drunkard turn- 
ing himself into a beast, when his own wife lay in 
her dying agony. I have known the gambler turn 
away from his mother's new made grave, to his 
accustomed haunts of delirious revelry. I have 
known the miser's very death dream to be about 
gold ; and he has seemed to dread death chiefly be- 
cause it must separate him from his earthly treasures. 
And even where the terrors of adversity, or the 
glooms of the last hour, may, for a moment, silence 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 87 

the sinner's ruling passion, unless God's Spirit inter- 
pose to change it, it will certainly re-appear, and act 
with more than its former energy. 

And this leads me to say that the ruling passion 
will grow stronger in the next world. Admit, if you 
will, that it may be modified in respect to its parti- 
cular character; modified by the new circumstances 
and objects by which it is surrounded. Be it so, 
that the miser may no longer care for his gold, nor 
the sensualist for his cups, nor the ambitious man 
for his laurels ; and, on the other hand, we know 
there will be no objects in the abodes of the blessed 
to awaken or to demand the exercise of a spirit of 
compassion ; nevertheless, the concentrated energy 
of the soul, for good or evil, will remain unchanged — 
the sinner will be reaching a more dreadful stature 
in sin, the saint a more glorious stature in holi- 
ness, through all the ages of an eternal existence. 

But who, after all, can say that the ruling passion 
of the sinner may not exist in the next world, in 
precisely the same form that it does in this, with 
this terrible difference, however, that there shall be 
no object to minister to it ? Suppose the craving 
appetite for sensual indulgence, the burning thirst 
for power, the sordid desire for wealth, to have gath- 
ered a thousand fold deeper intensity than the vo- 
luptuary, the ambitious man, the miser, ever felt on 
earth ; and suppose each to be shut out from all the 
means of gratification • and suppose the ungratified 
passion to be for ever growing stronger as the ages 
of eternity roll away — Oh! tell me, ye who have 
known something here of the bitterness of cherish- 
ing desires that could not be met, tell me whether 



88 THE RULING PASSION. 

any thing beyond this is necessary to complete the 
idea of hell. 

Oh how terribly, how gloriously, this thought, that 
the ruling passion is to grow stronger for ever, bears 
upon the future ! How it magnifies, beyond any 
measure that our conceptions can reach, the misery 
of the lost — the happiness of the saved ! 

Fix your eye upon a man whose outward demon- 
strations are such, that you cannot even doubt that 
his ruling passion is for evil. Possibly, he may ap- 
pear decent enough in his ordinary intercourse ; but 
whoever knows him well, knows that he is revenge- 
ful — that it is in his heart to pursue the man who he 
imagines has injured him, even to the death ; knows 
that he is profane — that he will, even in cool blood, 
insult the majesty, and defy the vengeance, of Hea- 
ven. If you could see him at certain times, when 
his passions are wrought up into a tempest, the 
mixture of rage and blasphemy that you would wit- 
ness, would make you turn from him with shud- 
dering, as from an incarnate fiend. All this, while 
he is yet in the body, and subject to the numerous 
restraints incident to the present state of existence. 
Keep your eye upon him a little w T hile, and you 
shall find him a lost spirit; and now mark how 
that ruling passion for evil, which before seemed 
so strong, has gathered a degree of strength that 
mocks at the imbecility of all its previous opera- 
tions. Mark off a million of ages from his exist- 
ence, and see how you find the ruling passion then. 
You may talk of a giant's power, but that conveys 
no idea of the actual reality. You may collect every 
image of overpowering strength, and of unqualified 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 89 

horror; you may combine the darkness of midnight 
with the fury of the storm, and let the flashing of 
the lightning, and the rolling of the thunder, be the 
terrible accompaniment, and still you will have 
nothing that will more than faintly shadow forth 
the might and the misery seated in that sinner's bo- 
som. And who has thoughts far reaching enough to 
overtake eternity? And yet eternity, eternity is 
the field on which the ruling passion is to have its 
perpetual development ! I know not all the ingre- 
dients in the cup of trembling, which is put into the 
hands of the wicked in the next world ; but it is 
enough for me to know, that the ruling passion for 
evil, whose operations sometimes terrify me here on 
earth, will not only be an everlasting inmate of the 
bosom, but will wax more fierce, and strong, and 
terrible, for ever. 

Now, look at the man whose ruling passion is for 
good, and take the measure, if you can, of the hap- 
piness which he enjoys, of the good which he ac- 
complishes, in its progressive and eternal develop- 
ment. As you see him here, bearing afflictions with 
undisturbed tranquillity, encountering difficulties 
with an overcoming faith, traversing the dark val- 
ley with an unfaltering step, you feel that the up- 
ward tendencies of his spirit are strong; and you 
are not afraid to see him die, because you are satis- 
fied that his is the good man's death. But, even in 
all this, you have seen the ruling passion of only an 
imperfect Christian. Wait a little, till he has passed 
the heavenly portals, and you may contemplate that 
of a glorified saint. Lay every thing else, that may 
enter into the idea of future bliss, entirely out of view — 



00 THE RULING PASSION. 

1 am sure you will not doubt that here, in the saint's 
own bosom, and at the first moment after he has 
entered Heaven, is enough to constitute the eternal 
weight of glory. But, here again, look ye down 
through the vista of future centuries, fasten upon 
the remotest point to which even your imagination 
can reach, and the ruling passion for doing good and 
glorifying God, shall be acting with an energy that 
is the result of the steady growth of all the millions 
of ages that have intervened. And that shall be 
the starting point for a new course of development 
that shall make all that has preceded appear feeble 
and infantile. Saint in heaven, I lose myself in the 
contemplation of thy destiny ! Be thou where thou 
wilt in God's dominions, that ruling passion of thy 
soul, ever active and ever growing, will keep thee 
entranced with the glories of Heaven. 

Oh that I could write, as with the point of a 
diamond, on the memories and hearts of all our 
young men, the great practical lessons which this 
subject suggests to them; that I could show them 
how intimately it connects itself with all their 
responsibilities and prospects. Many of you, I 
doubt not, have already set your affections on the 
things that are above, and are running for the 
heavenly prize; but others of you, I have reason 
to fear, are making haste for the accomplishment 
of your own ruin. You are dreaming that the pres- 
ent is the time for indulgence, and that the future 
will be the time for repentance ; that it matters 
little what you do now, in the days of your youth, 
as there will be time enough to retrieve your er- 
rors in the graver period of your maturity. As to 



W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D. 91 

the probability of your ever seeing that period, I 
leave it to your own reflection, after you have 
walked through any burying ground you please, and 
noticed how large a proportion of the grave stones 
mark the departure of the young; but the point 
which I wish to urge upon you is, that you are, im- 
perceptibly to yourselves, forming a habit of indif- 
ference to religion ; that each successive act of 
indulgence, or even procrastination, lessens your 
power to resist temptation, and increases the proba- 
bility that you will never repent ; and that, when 
the anticipated period for giving your hearts to God 
shall come, you may find yourselves so entirely 
under the dominion of your own lusts, as to be dis- 
couraged even from any attempt to escape. I say, 
then, your own dignity, your own safety, your own 
immortality, protests against this habit of delay; 
and if you open your eyes you will see "Danger," 
"Danger," written in letters of fire upon every un- 
hallowed object to which your affections incline. 
But you are not merely to be happy or miserable 
yourselves — you are to exert a mighty influence in 
rendering others so ; and that influence will operate 
in the one direction or the other, according to the 
character of your own ruling passion. Particularly 
your country's interests are, to a great extent, 
bound up in you ; and the wise and far-seeing, at 
this moment, have their eyes upon you, as they 
would discern what are the signs of the times. 
Nay, there is an imploring voice that comes up from 
the depths of the future — the voice of unborn gene- 
rations, reminding you that you are the depositories 
of their interests, and that the period is rapidly 



92 THE RULING PASSION. 

passing away in which you can earn their grateful 
benedictions. 

What, then, is to be done ? I answer, see to it, 
first, that your own ruling passion be right — that it 
be for truth and goodness, for conscience and for 
God. If the great work of making it right is yet 
to be performed, come penitently, and confidingly, 
and obediently, and bow down to the Holy Ghost, 
and you shall receive the clean heart at his hands. 
And then go abroad and try to change the ruling 
passion of the world. Labour, with all your might, 
in dependance on God's grace, to give to men's 
thoughts and affections an upward direction. Thus 
you will not only save yourselves, but be your 
country's benefactors through all successive genera- 
tions ; and when the ransomed shall all be gathered 
home, and shall be joining, under the influence of 
the ruling passion of Heaven, in a common song to 
Him who hath redeemed them, how ecstatic will be 
your joy to recognise among them, not one, but 
many, whose ruling passion, through your instru- 
mentality, has been changed from sin to holiness, 
and whose eternal destiny has undergone a corres- 
ponding change from wo to bliss — from hell to 
Heaven ! 



SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

BY 

J. W. YEOMANS, D. D. 

PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DANVILLE, PA. 



It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of .he law to 
fail. — Luke xvi. 17. 

When the Saviour was derided by covetous 
Pharisees, for teaching that men could not serve 
God and mammon, he reminds them of an univer- 
sal and unchangeable law, by which the actions and 
characters of all moral creatures were to be tried. 
He warns them that, easily as they might justify 
themselves before men, there was yet a tribunal 
where not actions only, but hearts would be judged ; 
and the verdict of the degenerate sentiment around 
them could be no safe criterion to prove their man- 
ners blameless, and their prospects fair. Many 
things highly esteemed among men are abomination 
in the sight of God ; and the judgment of God is 
the decision of a last appeal. It decides by a rule 
which is, by eminence, " the law." And, however 
men may evade an honest and fair conformity, by 
glossing or wresting the letter, they cannot change 
or annul the law itself. That law underlies the 
scheme of the universe. It came out into clear 

(93) 



94 SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

view in the decalogue. It inspirited the ceremonials 
of the ancient church. It breathed in all the 
prophets until John. And now that the kingdom 
of God is preached, and every man rusheth into it ? 
that same immutable law remains and pervades the 
whole system. " It is easier for heaven and earth 
to pass than one tittle of the law to fail." 

The rank thus given to " the law," above other 
laws of the universe, may be traced by infallible 
signs in the course of divine dispensations. Indeed, 
it is the fair presumption, that if the principle of 
this supremacy of the law belongs to the system 
of created things, it will reveal itself in the opera- 
tion of the system, and, most of all, at those points 
where the finger of God most immediately appears. 

It is common to speak of moral law as most 
properly the law of God, in distinction from the 
laws of nature. But all the laws of the creation 
are both laws of God and laws of nature — laws of 
God, because God is their author — laws of nature, 
because conceived to reside in the nature of created 
things. By law, in the widest sense, we mean the 
principle conceived as determining the states and 
actions of persons and things. In this broad use it 
is applied alike to matter and spirit, even to God 
himself ; in matter, regulating force and motion ; in 
spirit, controlling thought and feeling, reason and 
conscience. It is in connection with reason and 
conscience that this principle takes the name of 
moral law. Expressed in words, it becomes, as in 
the Scriptures, a body of precepts, defining and en- 
joining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong; 
and is received as the written will of God, to be the 



J. W. TEOMANS, D. D. 95 

guide of our life. This moral law is the kind of 
law which can never fail ; and the signs which God 
has given of his supreme regard for moral law, are 
to be the subject of our consideration in this dis- 
course. " It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, 
than one tittle of the law to fail." 

1. Of all possible signs of the supremacy of moral 
law, one of the most comprehensive and impressive, 
is the dominion given to man over the rest of the 
earthly creation. God said, Let us make man in 
our own image, after our likeness, and let him have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
of the air, and over all the earth, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Thus 
to man, a moral creature, and the only moral in- 
habitant of the earth, is given dominion over all the 
earth. And this donation is made to his rational 
and moral nature ; to the image and likeness of God 
in him. All things else on the earth are put under 
him. He may use them all for his benefit. What- 
ever has the capacity of serving him he may employ 
in his service. He is not required to prefer the life 
or the enjoyment of any other earthly creatures to 
his own ; but when their labour or suffering may 
be useful to him, he may exact it. When their 
death will promote his well being, he is at liberty to 
take their life. 

This gift of dominion over all the earth shows the 
high esteem of the Creator for the moral principle 
in the creation, and the rank he has given to moral 
law. A creature who, without these divine endow 
ments of reason and conscience, w r ould be no way 
superior to the other living creatures of the earth, 



96 SUPREMACY OF THE MOEAL LAW. 

is invested with an authority claimed solely for his 
moral nature. The living tribes present themselves 
before him to receive their names, as if to offer their 
obeisance and their service. All take their places 
at his feet. And while he keeps his purity, which 
is really the condition of his power, he holds an easy 
and honourable sway. This exaltation over other 
creatures comes not from an arbitrary decree, to be 
enforced by outward power, against the nature of 
things. It rises from the nature of man ; from the 
moral image of God within him ; from the essential 
supremacy of the moral principle in the universe. 
It signifies, that in the realm of God morality is not 
to be subservient, but supreme; that the natural 
must serve the moral ; that no power can arrest or 
change the course of moral law ; that every valley 
shall be raised, and every mountain and hill shall 
be brought low, and that the way shall be every 
where prepared for fulfilling the moral purposes of 
God. 

2. It is another impressive proof of the supremacy 
of moral law, that the other laws of earth and hea- 
ven are so evidently used for moral ends. 

In that portion of the history of the world which 
is contained in the Holy Scriptures, we find the 
pleasure and displeasure of God with the righteous- 
ness and unrighteousness of men very commonly 
expressed through the changes in the material world. 
Sunshine and rain, cold and heat, all the various 
properties and motions of the elements, are so freely 
used to convey the blessing or the curse of God to 
men, as to suggest the thought that they were made 
for nothing else. Hence that natural expectation 



J. W. YEOMAN S, D. D. 97 

which so widely prevails among men, that a people 
with whom God is well pleased will have fruitful 
seasons, health, success in their labours, and order 
and peace in their society ; and that a people with 
whom God is displeased will suffer from famine, or 
pestilence, or the failure of their favourite enter- 
prises, or the distraction and ruin of their social 
state. And as of communities, so of individuals. 
However the course of providence may seem, at 
times, to depart from this rule, we still find that this 
subserviency of physical laws to moral ends is one 
of the most common matters of national expectation 
among men. 

We cannot know how far these laws are thus ap- 
plied in fact, except by intelligent and constant 
observation, with the eye of religious faith. Do you 
believe in a particular providence ? Do you see the 
hand of a moral ruler at all in the changes of nature 
around you ? Then do you hear the earth, with 
her fields of barrenness and fertility ; the ocean, with 
its calms and its storms; the seasons, with their 
riches and their poverty; the living tribes, with their 
services and their depredations ; the very hearts of 
men, with their friendships and their enmities, all 
uttering, with a majestic and overwhelming elocu- 
tion, the moral sentiments of God. The moral 
events of the kingdom of God are brought to their 
issue by the natural operation of physical laws. Is 
there a famine in Egypt and Canaan? It occasions 
the promotion of Joseph in the government of Egypt, 
the preservation of his father's family, their removal 
into Egypt, the long and grievous bondage of the 
Hebrews there, their deliverance by a mighty hand, 
8 



9S SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

their wonderful pilgrimage through the wilderness, 
their establishment in the land of promise ; together 
with all the moral effects which followed those 
events, and which will follow them to the end of 
time. When we consider the event, which issued 
in all these consequences, as a result of the natural 
operation of the laws of matter, we can hardly resist 
the conviction that those laws had these effects 'for 
their object, and were an important link in the chain 
of causes for filling the earth with the moral glory 
of the Lord. 

This instance of natural laws resulting in moral 
effects, is rendered unquestionable and illustrious by 
having been recorded and explained in the book of 
inspiration. The history of the events is written 
by the infallible pen, and the events are placed in 
their true relation to each other. But suppose all 
history to be written by inspiration of God ; what 
but that same infallible discernment would be needed 
to trace all physical changes to moral effects ? Would 
not all nature then seem instinct with the moral de- 
signs of her Maker ? Who could then doubt that the un- 
conscious, as well as the conscious, being of the world, 
is geared into the spiritual kingdom, and forms one 
system with it, and is moving always, under the 
guidance of God, towards his moral ends? Thus 
all the changes of the world become illustrations 
and supports of moral character and moral law. 
Each contributes to its appropriate moral effect, as 
each ray of converging light contributes to form the 
bright and burning focus. Not that each separate 
event must have, by itself, a moral significancy, any 
more than each letter in a volume of history must 



J. W. YEOMANS, D. D. 99 

have a distinct historical signification; but the 
series, as a whole, is an inscription of the moral law, 
and the moral character of God on the material 
tables of the universe. 

Now it is not at all essential to the authority and 
power of moral law, that it should always have this 
form of expression. It may, for the present, be con- 
venient; it may suit the circumstances of the sub- 
jects who dwell on the earth, and who, like ourselves, 
are interwoven with a material and temporary sys- 
tem; but for subjects under other circumstances, 
these same spiritual laws may be better expressed 
in other characters. It is convenient for English 
people that their laws should be written in the 
English tongue ; but for people of other languages, 
the English law books would be useless, an incum- 
brance, fit only for burning, while the laws them- 
selves, in their spirit, might suit other people, and 
remain to be expressed in other forms. Thus will 
the time come when the heavens and the earth, as 
books of moral law, will have no further use ; when 
these forms of moral expression will become obso- 
lete, superfluous, fit only for the fire; when the 
heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and, 
being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and all 
the works that are therein shall be burned up ; while 
the laws of truth and righteousness, which the hea- 
vens and the earth have so long been used to explain 
and enforce, shall remain in their authority and 
glory for ever. ■" It is easier for heaven and earth to 
pass than one tittle of the law to fail." 

3. Yet more shall we feel the force of this truth 



100 SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

when we observe, how often and signally God has, 
for moral purposes, actually interrupted the order 
of nature. 

Aiming at a moral impression on the world, he 
does mighty works in Egypt ; and, beginning with 
Moses, he shows a bush burning with fire, but not 
consumed; he changes a rod into a serpent, and 
the serpent again into a rod; he makes the hand 
of Moses, at one moment, leprous — at another, 
whole; then, turning upon Egypt, he changes the 
waters into blood, covers the land with darkness, 
with flies, and with frogs — afflicts the people with a 
storm of hail, with murrain upon their cattle, with 
boils and blains upon themselves, and, finally, with 
the death of the first born of every family ; and all 
this by a professed departure from the ordinary 
course of nature. ' Thus awfully were earth and 
heaven confounded, to give Egypt and the world an 
impression of the true God ; and, as the Hebrews 
went forth from bondage, they also must be con- 
firmed in the knowledge and fear of the Lord ; and, 
for this purpose, a path for them is made through 
the sea, and their pursuers are destroyed in the re- 
turning waters. Forty years long was nature 
turned out of her ordinary course, six days of every 
seven, to supply that people with their daily bread ; 
and every day of the seven to form a cloud for 
their guidance by day and their defence by night. 
Water flows from the rock for their thirst; quails 
flock to their camp as a supply of meat ; the Jor- 
dan parts its overflowing waters, as of its own 
accord, to give them a dry passage. At their en- 
trance on the land of promise the walls of Jericho, 



J. W. YEOMANS, D. D. 101 

as of themselves, fall down to give them possession. 
The Lord thus led that people through a wilder- 
ness of miracle, to teach them and the world his 
name and will ; to establish with them the practical 
supremacy of moral law ; to show that people that 
the natural is made for the spiritual ; that the 
world, in all its other departments of law and of 
life, must yield to disruption, dislocation, nay, to 
utter confusion and destruction, to exalt the laws of 
the Spirit. Behold how the Creator will prepare the 
way of his moral authority and power, through the 
solid mountains of his physical dominions, wherever 
they cross his path, and may help forward his moral 
work. The sun and moon stop in their courses, at 
the word of one of his servants ; those great lights 
leave their apparent place in the firmament to con- 
vince men that the God of Israel is Jehovah. The 
heavens might be deranged, but the world must not 
be without the knowledge of the living and true 
God. It was easier for the heavens to be thrown 
into disorder, than for an impression in favour of 
moral law to be lost. It was " easier for heaven and 
earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail." 

But, of all the illustrations of this branch of our 
subject, the most commanding is given in the incar- 
nation of the Son of God. In the person of the 
Mediator between God and man, there was an amaz- 
ing departure from the established course of nature. 
And what lifts this case immeasurably above all 
others, which either have been or can be, is the fact, 
that it involves, not only deviation from the estab- 
lished laws of human nature, but also a mysterious 
and astonishing departure from the mode of the 



102 SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

divine existence itself, as previously known. In 
other cases, God has taken creatures out of the 
course which he had established for them ; in this 
case, he himself steps out of the previous mode of 
his existence and action. He gives what may be 
called, in a peculiar sense, a miraculous manifesta- 
tion of himself, and takes a relation to humanity 
altogether extraordinary — the only case of the kind 
in the history of his self-revelations. He takes hu- 
manity to himself as a personal constituent, with 
even an earthly body. The nature of God becomes 
joined to the nature of man, not as God is joined to 
other beings, who live, and move, and have their 
being in him, but as a constitutional part of a per- 
son, as the body is the part of the man. 

Although man had fallen from the law of the 
Spirit of life, yet must he not be allowed wholly to 
fail of this glorious property and end of his being. 
It must be restored to him ; and, to accomplish this, 
the Creator produces a new creation, and sets him- 
self before the world in a person and a relation 
which we know not how to describe. The very 
sight of this wonder, with the eye of an enlightened 
faith, is overwhelming. Man had the laws of his 
formation established from the first, and uniformly 
observed, by the Author of human generations, till 
the appearance of the Son of God in the flesh. God 
had his modes of existence and of revelation, which 
had appeared to be established from the time that 
man existed to behold them, and which had never 
before, in the whole course of divine manifestations, 
presented such a form as this. But an interest of 
the spiritual kingdom is to be secured. Now the 



103 

way of God in saving men is no longer to be pur- 
sued invisibly, but is to be fully declared, that its 
impression may be fixed in the hearts of angels and 
of men, and that it may bear its part in the consti- 
tution and advancement of the church. And what 
were the laws of the human nature now? What 
were now the laws (for so we may here call them) 
which had controlled before the modes of the Divine 
existence, and determined the previous relations of 
God to created things ? To make men believe his 
word, and accept his favour, he takes away both the 
human nature and the divine from the course of 
their previous and accustomed manifestations, and 
presents them in an extraordinary, a miraculous, re- 
lation to each other. It was easier for the estab- 
lished law of human generations to be given up, 
than for the violated law of spiritual life in man to 
be suffered utterly to fail ; it was easier for a man 
to be conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
and to be born of a virgin, than for one tittle of that 
law of spiritual life to fail ; it was easier for God to 
be born of a woman, to be made under the law of 
humanity, to become properly and truly a man, to 
grow up in body and in mind like a human child, to 
think, feel, and act as a man, to labor, suffer, and 
die as a man, than for one tittle of that law to fail. 
When we behold God clothed in the form, and sub- 
ject to the conditions, of humanity, and a man per- 
vaded by the nature of God ; when we see the hand 
of that mysterious person parting the net work of 
nature wherever he would have a passage through 
it to his moral ends ; when we see him walking on 
the sea, stilling the tempest, causing the blind to 



104 SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the 
dead to live ; when we see Him, who only hath im- 
mortality, sinking under mortal pains, and giving 
up the ghost like a dying man, and continuing under 
the power of death for a time, while the sun is dark- 
ened, the rocks are rent, graves are opened, and the 
earth quakes to its centre; we then behold what 
confusion may come to the material laws of earth 
and heaven, rather than that one tittle of the spi- 
ritual law should fail. 

This wonder, wrought for the introduction of the 
gospel, is but the beginning of wonders. The whole 
work of redemption, as carried on in the church, 
and in the souls of individual believers, is, as it 
were, a propagation of this miracle. The natural 
powers of heaven and earth are wrought into the 
system, and made subservient to redemption at the 
pleasure of the Redeemer ; while the efficient power 
which works through them, to the perfection of the 
new creation, is the Holy Ghost. Thus the law of 
life is restored. God may condescend, in all the 
forms of his manifestation, as Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, to dwell in his people. The entire fashion 
of the old creation may pass away. God, the Eter- 
nal, the Infinite, may bring earth and heaven to- 
gether to form for himself an abode among men, but 
not a tittle of the law can fail. 

4. We may finally observe, how this supremacy 
of moral law in the universe finds acceptance with 
the reason and conscience of man. We feel a natu- 
ral agreement with it, and act in conformity with it, 
when we follow the higher dictates of our nature. 

If the moral sentiments of men vary with their 



J. W; YEOMANS, D. D. 105 

different degrees of cultivation, this fact is strongly 
to our point; for it shows that the more a man is 
cultivated, according to the laws of his nature, the 
more does he exalt the moral above the physical. 
Among savages, where physical power is law, the 
strongest man is the greatest man. The progress 
of culture elevates reason and intelligence, in the 
estimation of men, and assigns to mere bodily 
strength a lower place. And when the moral senti- 
ments of a community begin to share in the judg- 
ments of reason, the moral qualities rise, at once, 
above all others ; and the maxim is established, 
that the good alone are truly great. Hence every 
man, of the true moral culture, makes no account 
of bodily comfort, of property, or of intellectual, 
reputation and influence, when his moral character 
is at stake. Hence all people, sufficiently enlight- 
ened to distinguish the physical, the intellectual, 
and the moral in man, instinctively regard the 
moral as the crown of human nature ; the part of 
man for which the other parts were made ; the 
foundation of all the real improvement and happi- 
ness of the race. This preference for moral excel- 
lence rises from the constitution of man. It ap- 
pears wherever man has any just development; and 
wherever it thus appears, it exemplifies and illus- 
trates the supremacy of moral law in the universe. 
Suppose, now, this order of things in the world 
reversed. Let the moral kingdom be made for the 
physical; let it be once proclaimed that man was 
made for the horse, the sparrow the worm ; for the 
cedar, the thorn and the thistle ; that men are to be 
reared as food for the lion, or as nourishment for the 



106 SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

oak; that their reason must be trained to secure 
that end; that the conscience must be employed 
only to prevent, or to detect and punish all devia- 
tions from that course ; let it once be enjoined on 
men to obey their bodily appetites alone, subjecting 
reason and conscience wholly to their sway, and 
holding the spirit in bondage to the flesh in all 
things ; could such an order of things be received 
by man ? What a war would it raise between the 
world without and the world within ! Without, the 
natural claiming supremacy — within, the moral; 
the facts of observation without at constant strife 
with reason and conscience within. To make such 
a world, and put such a creature as man upon it, 
would show such want of natural adaptation in the 
parts of the creation, it would be so unlike God as 
we now know him, that we could not believe its 
possibility. To us it must ever seem a thing im- 
possible with God, so imperiously does the moral 
sense of mankind demand the supremacy of moral 
law. And such a decision is worthy of our moral 
nature. Those high powers which make us the 
kindred of angels and of God, however we degrade 
them in practice, we cannot disparage in theory. 
Men challenge honour for reason and conscience, 
though they may not follow their counsel. We are 
the natural and necessary advocates of the su- 
premacy of moral law, and whenever the principle 
is asserted in the hearing of our higher nature, we 
say, Amen ; let it be " easier for heaven and earth to 
pass than one tittle of the law to fail." 

Of the practical suggestions which arise from this 
view of the supremacy of moral law, I mention, 



107 

1. The natural necessity of ruin as a consequence 
of sin. "We are familiar with the consequences of 
breaking the physical laws of our being. If a man 
will not sow, he cannot reap ; if a man will not con- 
sider, he must fall into trouble ; if he walks among 
pits, with his eyes shut, he must fall ; the sluggard 
must* see his poverty come as one that travelleth, 
and his wants as an armed man ; the drunkard 
must abide his poverty, his broken health, his shat- 
tered intellect, his premature death. From such 
penalties of physical transgression how shall he es- 
cape ; but sooner, far sooner, may the sluggard 
grow rich, the careless and imprudent prosper, the 
drunkard drink health, wealth, long life, and mental 
power and splendor from his cups, than the breaker 
of the least commandment of the moral law escape 
the threatened punishment. Not a tittle of the law 
can fail. 

2. In the light of this inviolable law, how pre- 
cious is the gospel. Jesus Christ came to seek and 
to save them that are lost ; but' how hopelessly lost 
are the transgressors of such a law. Think of those 
bonds of nature which hold the rivers in their course 
to the ocean; which hold the ocean in its bed, and 
the mountain on its base, and preserve the harmony 
of the celestial world. The planet, falling by an in- 
ward infirmity from its orbit, what power of nature 
can restore it? What can save it from being a wan- 
dering star, to which is reserved the blackness of 
darkness for ever ? But all the stars of heaven, once 
fallen, might easier rise again, by a self-restoring 
power, than a man, fallen from the guidance of his 
moral nature, by an inward infirmity, restore him- 



108 SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL LAW. 

self to righteousness and happiness. How mighty 
and merciful the hand which redeems from such a 
fall ! Let every sinner lay hold upon it ; for how 
shall he escape if he neglect so great salvation ? 

3. In the light of this subject, the value of our 
spiritual interests appears altogether inestimable. 
What is the brief welfare of the present life in the 
comparison ? Even the lawful pursuits of this life, 
and those most important to our earthly happiness, 
have only a superficial and transient worth. The 
true basis of our prosperity, for time and eternity, is 
the law of our moral nature. Seek first the king- 
dom of God. Lay up your treasures in heaven. 
Build on the rock which forms the basis of the uni- 
verse. The loose and dissoluble masses which have 
been collected on that rock, and which the weight 
of temporal interests seems almost to have petrified 
upon it, will not continue. A catastrophe is coming. 
The imperishable foundations of the moral world 
will rise, heaving from their surface the dissolving 
rubbish of a temporal economy, and thenceforth 
remaining only the glorious support of perfect righte- 
ousness for ever. 



DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 



BT 

J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 

PASTOR OP THE DUANE STREET CHURCH, NEW YORK. 



The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned 
back in the day of battle. — Psalm Lxviii. 9. 

This ill conduct of the Ephraimites, in turning 
their backs upon the enemy, is referred by expositors 
to various events. It is by no means unnatural to 
consider the Psalmist as alluding to the surrender of 
the ark to the Philistines ; for Shiloh, then the seat 
of the tabernacle, was within the tribe of Ephraim. 
1 Sam. iv. 4. Whenever and wherever it occurred, 
it presented the mortifying spectacle of a host in re- 
treat, and this when amply furnished with weapons 
of war. Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, 
turned back in the day of battle. The passage 
stands in the midst of rehearsals of victories and de- 
liverances, and of rebukes for unbelief and doubt. 
It was "written for our learning," and we cannot 
meditate on it, without a sad reflection that we, as 
a part of God's Israel, are engaged in a warfare, and 
summoned to "fight the good fight of faith;" that we 
are armed with the grand weapon of faith — the Word 
of God ; that we too have sometimes turned to flight, 
or proved cowards in Christ's cause ; and that the 

(109) 



110 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

shame of our sin is the greater, inasmuch as the 
weapon which we have distrusted is of divine power. 
Believing Israel to be a type of the church, and the 
words of the text to be for all ages of Christianity, I 
do not consider it in the least opposed to the analogy 
of New Testament precedent, to give this general 
principle of the Hebrew psalm a particular applica- 
tion. Dismissing the figure, therefore, let us seriously 
meditate on what it represents. 

It is true of multitudes who are engaged in the 
Christian warfare, that they are distrustful of their 
own weapons. For a soldier, there could hardly be 
a more unfortunate prepossession. His blows must 
be half-delivered, and his disposition to parley or to 
flee, exceedingly, subversive of bold fighting. The 
grand weapon of the Christian soldier is thus ex- 
pressed, in the most general terms, and in a meta- 
phor — " the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of 
God." This is the great instrument of assault against 
the world and against himself; for it is a peculi- 
arity of our warfare, that some of our most obstinate 
battles take place within the walls. The truth of 
God, however largely understood, is the name of 
our whole offensive armour. This truth in general, 
and certain prominent truths in particular, are pre- 
cisely what the Captain of Salvation has put into our 
hands, to be used against the adversary. It is a firm 
confidence in the temper, strength, and edge of these 
weapons, which makes the brave combatant. And 
it is the distrust of our unbelieving minds in these 
qualities of the Word of God, which I would endea- 
vour to stigmatise and remove. The fault here pom ted 
out is not the fault of one and another merely, but 



Ill 



in some degree of us all ; of ministers as well as peo- 
pie ; of societies and churches, as well as of humble 
individuals. 

I shall endeavour to show how this distrust of 
divine truth is exhibited; how it operates against 
the success of Christian effort, and how it may be 
removed. 

I. Distrust of divine truth, as the main offen- 
sive WEAPON OF THE CHRISTIAN WAR, IS EVINCED IN A 
VARIETY OF WAYS. 

1. By the disposition common to us all, to resort 
to other instruments than those which God has ap- 
pointed. Not error merely, in opposition to truth ; 
but sundry agencies, of a purely secular kind, are 
employed by Christians to accomplish those very ends 
for which the Scriptures are put into their hands. 
If the world is to be reformed, we fly to arrange- 
ments and causes which are external, economical, 
patriotic, literary, or simply moral, rather than to 
that which is spiritual. Things good in themselves, 
and pre-eminently good when subordinated to the 
gospel, become usurpations, malign and dangerous, 
when they supplant God's ordinance. The world is 
to be reformed, and, under God, we are to reform it ; 
but in God's way, and by his methods. The cor- 
rupt mass of mankind, tending, by virtue of internal 
maladies, to a catastrophe of disorder, vice and woe, 
is to be regulated, purified and blessed by a certain 
prescribed agency, set forth in all its details in this 
book. In the midst of the great self-destroying mass 
is placed a small but mighty engine, to accomplish 
an end for which philanthropists and politicians are 
sighing and labouring in vain. This energy within, 



112 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

which is to change the face of human society, and 
insure universal brotherhood, is the Church: the 
Church, my brethren; not of Rome, of England, or 
of Geneva, but the Church of the first-born of God; 
namely, the family of true believers, sanctified by the 
truth called out of all nations, washed in the blood 
of the Lamb, and enclosing an infant generation 
baptized into the Lord's name. The means by which 
this community is to effect so gigantic a result is 
one and simple ; it is the truth revealed in the Scrip- 
ture. To substitute for this any other agency, for 
the same ends, and not in subordination to this di- 
vine principle, is to change the whole method of war- 
fare, and to forsake our own professions and stand- 
ards. If the Church could be proved insufficient 
for what it proposes, this would afford a just reason 
for trying other means ; but it would, at the same 
time, prove the claims of Christianity to be groundless. 
If other ends, not contemplated by the gospel methods, 
are proposed, they may indeed be sought by other 
means; but such ends are, by the very supposition, 
temporal, and therefore inferior. The great moral 
changes which would make our world a happy world, 
are exactly what the Church is ordained to effect, by 
means of the truth ; and for all these ends the Church 
is sufficient. When wisdom has fully considered the 
line between these two classes of results, and allotted 
to Christianity those which are her part, it is a sort 
of disrespect to the system we profess, to use for the 
same purpose other machinery than that which God 
has prescribed ; and to do so is to manifest distrust 
of God's way. 

2. The same distrust is evinced by a projieness in 



J; W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 



113 



many of us to modify or conceal the statements of re- 
vealed truth. All truths are not alike fundamental, 
nor applicable alike to all cases and at all times; 
but every truth of this record has its place and sea- 
son of application, and is then and there to be ap- 
plied without reserve or tampering — for this plain 
reason, that it is the God of truth who utters it. 
But how often does it happen, that in addresses to 
the body of believers, in exhortations to the una- 
wakened, in counsel to the inquiring, or appeals to 
our own hearts, we falter in delivering the pure, un- 
adulterated word, and feel half afraid that it may do 
more harm than good ! How often does worldly 
fear seal up the lips which were ready to pronounce 
the doctrine of God's sovereign election ; or worldly 
policy drive back the free current of gracious invita- 
tion ! More watchful against momentary offence, and 
occasional abuse, than against the permanent and 
destructive influence of ignorance and all error, we 
seal up the very fountains which God has caused to 
flow from the smitten rock. Hence we shudder 
when .the preacher declares the statements of Jeho- 
vah himself, respecting his own awful decrees, or the 
irrevocable damnation of the dying hypocrite ; and, 
on the other hand, stand ready, when he publishes 
the*grace of Calvary, to hang chains and weights on 
the freedom of an offer which flies far and high above 
all legal preparations and conditions. Thus have a 
thousand errors and heresies arisen. Men have 
thought themselves more prudent than the All-wise. 
The Law has been lowered lest sinners should call it 
hard ; the way has been hedged up, lest the blind, 
and the halt, and the lame, should find it too easy ; 
9 



114 DISTRUST OF THE WORD: 

the Church has been barricaded with walls of cere- 
mony, and garrisoned wdth ranks of officials, lest some 
of its riches should be pilfered by dissent ; and the 
blessed Gospel, free as the air of Paradise, has been 
laden with conditions and restrictions, lest faith 
should be too simple. In every one of these, and in 
a thousand like ways, men show their distrust of 
divine revelation. 

3. Another proof of distrust in regard to the truth 
of God, is the small measure and lukewarm temper in 
which we actually use it. If it is what we profess 
to believe, it is an instrument suited to an infinite 
diversity of objects, all included in the one result of 
making men better and happier. With this persua- 
sion deeply fixed in our minds, we should be per- 
petually employing it for these ends; we should 
bring it forth, and apply it to the daily emergencies 
of labour, study, trade, and domestic life ; we should 
use it for a standard, as we use the familiar stand- 
ards of our common business, when we measure, 
weigh, or calculate. We should bring to this test 
the morality and expediency of many an aqt, and 
the purity of many a motive. That we do not, is 
only a proof how little we are Christians. It shows 
at how low a rate we estimate the cogency of scrip- 
tural principle; that there are so many things in 
commerce, in study, in politics, in education, and in 
social reform, (all involving moral relations,) which 
we never bring into the light of God's word. We 
carry on our affairs, and dispose of our property, and 
plan our amusements, and execute great changes in 
life, and bring up our children, and make our wills, 
without once turning to God's book to find how these 



J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 115 

several steps, which really make up the aggregate 
of our lives, are regarded in heaven. 

He who trusts in God's word as an infallible di- 
rectory, will never find a day in which he can live 
without its guidance. He cannot rise from sleep, 
without a query how the day's plan may be laid so 
as to find him, like Enoch, walking with God ; or 
take his early meal, without a purpose that it be 
sanctified by the word of God and prayer. He can- 
not receive his dues, without considering how much 
he oweth unto his Lord, and how much he is in dan- 
ger from the mammon of unrighteousness. He can- 
not meet a friend, without casting about for a scrip- 
ture maxim which may sanctify their union ; or an 
enemy, without guarding his temper by the precept 
of forgiveness. Nor can he close his doors, and " go 
up to the habitation of his bed," until he has looked 
back over the journey of the day, and applied to it 
the lesson of God's statutes. And the fact that all 
this is unknown in the days of any professing Chris- 
tians, is too conclusive an argument of their habitual 
distrust of heavenly truth as the instrument of their 
sanctification. 

4. One evidence more will suffice to show our dis- 
trust of divine truth. It is our neglect of this vol- 
ume. The soldier who has a favourite weapon is 
apt to be very much engaged in exercising it, and 
preparing to wield it. We have read of the knights 
in the days of chivalry, and of their trusty swords, 
many of which had inscriptions of honour and names 
of endearment. Many were the hours spent in 
sharpening and polishing these blades ; many more 
in brandishing them by way of preparation, so as to 



116 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

learn their qualities, and how to make them effect- 
ual. All this proved how truly they valued their 
arms, and it tended towards valorous conflict and 
easy victory. But we have a sword which we treat 
after a different fashion. It lies on our pulpits, per- 
haps on our tables. We bring it forth on special oc- 
casions, and never mention it but with devotion. 
We enshrine it, and praise it — would fight for it, but 
not with it. It lies, like the sword of Goliath the 
Philistine, at the dwelling of the priest Abimelech, 
"wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod." 1 Sam. 
xxi. 9. Whereas we should say of it, as did David: 
" There is none like that : give it me" The sword of 
the Spirit, which is the Word of God, requires to be 
taken up in the way of daily exercise. It will be so 
handled by those who rely on it. The Scriptures, 
as the great magazine of truth, available for all the 
demands of life, will be resorted to in serious medi- 
tation by every man who is convinced that his own 
life and salvation, and the life and salvation of mil- 
lions, depend on it; and he who is little engaged 
in close examination of the Bible, gives the best evi- 
dence possible that he has little practical belief in its 
amazing power. It is vain, and all but ludicrous, for 
any one to avow his supreme reverence for the Scrip- 
tures as the means of regenerating society and open- 
ing heaven, when he spends hours over the daily 
journal, or the book of gaiety, for minutes bestowed 
on prophets and apostles, and the words of Jesus, the 
Son of God. Let us change our practice or abate 
our professions ; let us cease to applaud Moses, Isa- 
iah and Paul, unless we mean to read them; for 
while we neglect our chief weapon, we plainly tell 



J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 117 

the world that we have no confidence in its virtues. 
If these marks are of any value, they show, my 
brethren, that in a greater or a less degree we are 
all guilty of ascribing less than is just to the chosen 
instrument of the Holy Ghost, the truth of revela- 
tion; and if we are conscious of the fault, we are 
in a good condition to deepen our sense of its folly, 
by contemplating, in the second place, 

II. The operation of this distrust, in regard to 
Christian activity. The activity here meant is 
that which concerns our enemies, and the enemies 
of the Church, who are more numerous, and more ma- 
lignant, and more formidable, than all human foes ; 
and though fellow mortals may be sometimes " God's 
sword," and are often the devil's hirelings, you will 
behold, if your eyes are opened, an array yet more 
fearful, and a battle yet more bloody ; for we wres- 
tle not as with flesh and blood, but against princes, 
against powers, and the rulers of the darkness of 
this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high 
places. The odds would be fearful were not He that 
is for us greater than they that are against us. 
But divine aid in this contest, like all divine aid, is 
ordered and prescribed. God has provided armour, 
both on the right hand and on the left ; that is to 
say, both sword and shield — both offensive and de- 
fensive. Every piece is named; the inventory is 
here — helmet, breastplate, girdle, buckler, and shoes ; 
but all in vain, unless the warrior endue himself with 
the harness, and utterly ineffectual without the 
weapon of attack — the sword of the Spirit. This 
we have found reason to believe has been, with 
some, rusting in the scabbard; its heavenly temper 



118 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

is disallowed ; and of this distrust the effect is mani- 
fold disability, weakness, fear and defeat. Let us 
more closely examine these effects. 

1. Distrust of the "Word of God, as an instrument, 
indisposes the soul for spiritual warfare. He who 
doubts his bow will avoid the conflict. Let me not 
be misunderstood, as if what I meant was religious 
controversy, in its common acceptation. Controversy 
there is indeed ; but not the war of words, or simple 
battling for opinions. The war which rages under 
our banners is a war for life or death ; it began when 
sin entered ; it will end when sin is eternally ex- 
pelled. In the individual soul, it begins when grace 
enters ; it ends when glory is made sure. It is the 
flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
the flesh. The new nature, like God its author, is 
essentially the antagonist of sin, in its principle and 
its acts. From the soul, that is, from the centre out- 
wards, it urges an influence of opposition which is 
penetrating, expulsive, and destroying. It struggles 
to bring all things to its own likeness, and therefore 
to annul all that is unlike it ; this is the law of the 
kingdom of heaven, which is leaven, and salt, and 
light. While this process goes on in the individual 
soul, it goes on also in communities. That which 
the seed of grace does in one, the piety of God's peo- 
ple does in many in the world at large ; and both 
in one case and in the other, it is truth which is the 
instrument. To make it accomplish this, its office, 
there is need of constant, restless activity. Let this 
cease in the soul, and sin gains ground ; let it cease 
in the Church, and Christianity makes no progress 
— which will account for a number of painful phe- 



J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 



110 



noruena, such as backsliding, the loss of comfort, 
the decline of revivals, the decay of missionary 
spirit, the arrest of reformation work, in a word, the 
" turning back in the day of battle." But you per- 
ceive at once, that a cause could scarcely be named 
more certain to produce this result, than distrust of 
the truth. Undervalue the power of this means, 
and you will be indisposed to war ; you will love 
the shades of carnal peace ; you will have a Chris- 
tianity which is tamed down to servile acquiescence 
in all that sin proposes, and all that the world al- 
lows. Distrust of the armour of truth must needs 
indispose for the spiritual warfare. 

2. Distrust of the Word of God, as an instrument, 
maizes the soul weak when forced into the struggle. 
He who doubts his bow will fight feebly. This ap- 
plies to those who actually contend against sin in 
some degree ; but they contend at a disadvantage. 

It was not the least of the causes of primitive 
success, that the apostles and martyrs confided in 
the Gospel as an instrument of irresistible force. 
They were not ashamed of it. It had transformed 
them ; it could transform others. It was the power 
of God unto salvation, whether wielded against Jew- 
ish prejudice or Greek philosophy. In their hands 
it destroyed the wisdom of the wise, and brought to 
nothing the understanding of the prudent. They 
spoke in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. 
This was their confidence ; this made them strong 
in the battle — good soldiers of Jesus Christ. They 
dealt no doubtful blows ; they ran not as uncer- 
tainly ; they fought not as one that beateth the air. 
Even Paul, who, in presence among the Corinthians, 



120 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

could say that he was " base" among them, could 
also say of his Christian valour, " We do not war 
after the flesh, casting down imaginations and every 
high thing that exalteth itself against the know- 
ledge of God." Nay, such was his estimate of this 
weapon, that he cries, " I count all things but loss 
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ." 
And, my brethren, if you will turn over all the 
books of church history, and all your recollections 
of good men, you will not find an individual, an- 
cient or modern, in the pulpit or out of it, remarka- 
ble for great success in promoting religion, who had 
not, at the same time, a high confidence in the 
truth of the Gospel to produce this very result. 

How different the spectacle in our day ! There 
are enemies enough to fight, but we sit still; or 
when we contend, how feebly is it ! Vice triumphs 
around us — error stalks abroad ; but our blows are 
scarcely felt, because we ourselves think them im- 
potent. The remedy would be for us to acquire 
such a holy admiration for the Bible, as the instru- 
ment of invasion and victory, as should lead the 
feeblest woman, and the youngest Sabbath school 
teacher, to shout, " The sword of the Lord and of 
Gideon f Then should our success be such, that the 
church would renew the exclamation of Habakkuk, 
" Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the 
oaths of the tribes — even thy word!" Hab. iii. 9. 
How can we shame and intimidate our foe when we 
doubt our very arms ? 

3. Distrust of the Word of God, as an instrument, 
tends to make the sold retreat before its enemies. He 
who distrusts his bow will flee. 



J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 1121 

Grant that you do not avoid conflict ; grant that 
you ply your adversary, the devil, with some show- 
ers of arrows; yet any diffidence, in regard to the 
instrument you employ, will suggest cessation and 
flight. To begin a battle is not to conquer. In the 
evil day you are to stand, to war courageously, 
"and, having done all, to stand" Cowardice is 
certain, if you feel no strength ; to doubt your 
armour is to be unarmed. David went out between 
two lines of fierce array, holding up his ruddy coun- 
tenance with elation, though he carried only a 
shepherd's staff, a sling, and five smooth stones out 
of the brook ; but he was strong in the Lord, and in 
the power of his might. " Thou comest to me with 
a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield ; but I 
am come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, 
whom thou hast defied." 

Our grand business is to carry on a warfare which 
our predecessors began. The world is to be subdued, 
and every Christian is in the ranks. You know 
your weapon of attack; you ought to know its 
power. But if, when assaulted, you have misgiv- 
ings about this, and if these misgivings continue, 
you will faint, you will fly. Hence, when error has 
come into the church, and ministers and people 
have used the truth, as men use a bow which they 
expect to break, or a piece of ordnance which they 
fear will burst, the result has been according to that 
threatening against Israel : " The Lord shall cause 
thee to be smitten before thine enemies ; thou shalt 
go out one way against them, and flee seven ways 
before them." Deut. xxviii. 25. In every engage- 
ment, in the heart or in the world, doubt as to the 



122 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

efficacy of the means will produce fearfulness and 
retreat. 

4. Distrust, in regard to God's truth, will he likely 
to cause defeat He who doubts his bow will gene- 
rally be conquered. I admit that, in the great con- 
cern, namely, personal salvation, every regenerate 
man is safe ; he cannot be defeated ; his redemption 
is sure; but it is because he is in Christ's hands; 
because no one can pluck him thence ; because the 
believer abides in him, John xv. 6, and Christ's 
words abide in the believer. It is by the truth that 
even saints persevere ; but even saints may be re- 
pulsed in those lesser engagements which precede 
their final conquest. Israel may be chased by the 
Amorites, and destroyed by them in Seir, Deut. 
i. 44, though they are eventually to cross Jordan ; 
they may be smitten before Ai, so that Joshua may 
say, " Lord, what shall I say when Israel turneth 
their backs before their enemies?" Josh. vii. 8, 
though they are eventually to possess the land. 
Private Christians may lose the field, and, for a 
time, be subject to the world; congregations may 
lose the savour of divine things, and cease to influ- 
ence the mass around them ; public enterprises may 
fail, by reason of declining faith, in such as should 
support them ; branches of the visible church may 
fall back before their adversaries, dwindle, and even 
disappear. All these are temporary conquests by 
the enemy. Thus Shiloh, once the seat of the ark, 
became a proverb of desertion. Jer. vii. 12, 14; 
1 Sam. iv. 11; Psa. lxxviii. 60. Wittenberg, the 
cradle of the Keformation, is profaned by rational- 
ism; Geneva, where Calvin taught, is held by bap- 



J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 123 

tised infidels ; and Cambridge, where the Puritan 
fathers rejoiced in a divine Saviour, is the citadel 
of Socinianisni. Distrust of the truth, failure to em- 
ploy it, substitution of something in its place — these 
are the causes of the dire reverse. And it may be 
that Protestant America, unless she take a manlier 
hold on the Scriptures, may become the western 
ally of the Beast, and shine with the splendid jew- 
els, and crosses, and mitres of subjugation. In a 
word, if we would have the blessings of religion we 
must prize its means ; and if we- would be victo- 
rious against sin, Satan, worldly fashion, error, infi- 
delity, Popery, idolatry, and vice, we must feel that 
the Bible is an instrument, which, in God's hand, 
shall bring them all to destruction. It is the la- 
mentable want of this persuasion which makes us, 
though armed, to turn back in the day of battle ; 
and it is the remedy for this disease of the soul, to 
which I call your attention ; it is the third and last 
head of my discourse. 

III. Before stating the means of recovery, let us 
look once again at the evil, and its opposite good. 
The evil is distrust of God's word ; the opposite good 
is a high estimate of divine truth as the weapon of 
our warfare. The question is, How shall this just 
valuation of the truth be increased in us ? And the 
answer to this may be comprised in a few simple, 
but I trust important particulars. 

1. It will be our duty to consider what this wea- 
pon has already achieved. This was the method 
taken by the Psalmist in the context. He recounts 
the victories of Israel. It had been their sin that 
"they forgat God's works, and his wonders that he 



124 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

showed them." v. 11. He rehearses these works 
and wonders — "They believed not in God, and 
trusted not in his salvation." v. 22. The Psalm- 
ist goes over the pilgrimage in the desert — " They 
remembered not his hand, nor the day when he de- 
livered them from the enemy." v. 42. The sacred 
poet accumulates the trophies of God's host ; in 
like manner, my brethren, let us look back at the 
conquests of truth. Whatever Christianity has done, 
has been done by the Word. This is the weapon 
which, in God's* hand, routed the hosts of heathen- 
ism, razed the ancient temples, struck the oracles 
dumb, quenched the fire of altars, staunched the 
flow of human blood, broke the chains of slavery, 
raised the feebler sex to membership with Christ, 
and fortified ten thousand citadels with virtuous 
bulwarks; and when Christianity had grown cor- 
rupt, and superstition and idolatry threatened once 
more to come in like a flood, under a Christian name, 
the Lord lifted up a standard against them. It was 
this divine truth which effected the Keformation ; it 
w r as this book which, found in the convent at Er- 
furt, became in the hands of Luther a sword to 
pierce % the vitals of the Beast ; it is this instru- 
ment which forced a way for our fathers into this 
western continent, and which their sons are carrying 
to the uttermost parts of the earth ; it is a consid- 
eration which may be administered as a cordial to 
the fainting Ephraimite. 

2. Nor is it in the past only that we find such en- 
couragement. Consider, I pray you, what this ivea- 
pon is accomplishing this day. From a thousand 
high places in Zion, in this Sabbath hour, the bow 



J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 125 

is drawn at a venture, and the arrows of Messiah 
are sharp in the hearts of the kings enemies, 
whereby the people fall under him. God's people 
are still like Joseph — "the archers have sorely 
grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him ; but 
his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his 
hands are still made strong by the hands of the 
mighty God of Jacob." Gen. xlix. 24. The Word, 
read and heard, is awakening sinners, comforting 
sufferers, supporting the weak, confirming the strong, 
and sanctifying the imperfect. While I speak, it is 
urging on to victory part of the host, who are this 
moment struggling on the verge of the river; and 
from whose lips I hear the voice of the last battle- 
cry — " death, where is thy sting ? grave, where 
is thy victory ?" Beloved, let us not distrust our 
weapons, until they shall cease to do such things as 
these. 

3. But this is not all; the half has not been told 
you ; for consider what this instrument is yet to achieve. 
It is the triumphal song of all the prophecies. They 
so illuminate the future, as that it becomes to the 
past and present what the noonday is to the morning- 
watch. Let me reserve for other Sabbaths the fuller 
recital of what holy seers have told us of that latter 
glory ; enough for us to-day, that all these glories 
are the effects of truth. In other words, the triumph 
of Christianity is the triumph of faith. Our Captain 
of Salvation is leading us on to a victory, of which 
the philosophers of this world have not dreamt. He 
addresses us, in view of the coming onset, as he ad- 
dressed Joshua thirty-two centuries ago ; he so ad- 
dresses us, as if he solemnly put our hands upon the 



126 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

sword and on the bow — " This booh of the law shall 
not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt medi- 
tate therein day and night ; for then thou shalt make 
thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good 
success ; have not I commanded thee ? Be strong, 
and of a good courage ; be not afraid, neither be thou 
dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whi- 
thersoever thou goest." Josh. i. 8, 9. 

We learn, then, to confide in our weapons, by con- 
sidering what they have done, what they are doing, 
and what they are yet to do. 

4. Is it not then a plain duty, for the very end 
proposed, to make ourselves familiar with this blessed 
volume, in a degree which we have never yet known ? 
Surely the Mohammedan will rise in judgment against 
us; for he cleaves to his Koran, he studies it, he 
passes days over it, he commits it to his memory. 
If our Christianity is destined, as I hope it is, greatly 
to revive in this age ; if the Lord's battle is to be 
fought with unexampled vigour, it will not be until 
we give new attention to the scriptures of truth. 
Then, when this Bible takes its due place in colleges, 
in schools, in social circles, in families, in counting 
rooms, in ships upon the sea ; when it is craved and 
called for by thousands, as in the days of the reform- 
ers, we shall behold a reformation of which that from 
Popery was but the type. Then shall heathen sages, 
if such remain, exclaim of the Church, as did Balaam 
concerning Israel, " The Lord his God is with him, and 
the shout of a king is among them !" Num. xxiii. 21. 
Then shall heathenism, and rationalism, and com- 
munism, and Romanism, and all the battalions of 
errorism, leave the field. " One shall chase a thousand, 



J. W. ALEXANDER, D. D. 127 

and two put ten thousand to flight!" Deut. xxxii. 30. 
What, 0, brethren, is the instrument in these certain 
changes ? It is truth, before which all that is corrupt 
shall burn, and all that is stubborn shall be broken. 
" Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and 
like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces T 
Jer. xxiii. 29. 

5. Once more ; as a remedy for distrust, place 
yourselves in circumstances in which you ivill have to 
observe the energy of this weapon. This truth, whether 
you are aware of it or not, is even now working won- 
ders. It is healing hard hearts ; it is transforming 
lions to lambs ; it is pulling down strong holds. To 
behold all this, be persuaded, Christian professors, to 
enter the ranks yourselves. Draw forth the bow ; 
put the arrow upon your string; engage in actual 
service ; leave the world for a little to whirl without 
you, and venture out of winter quarters to do some- 
thing for God. Even if your own army be asleep, 
steal forth and survey the enemy's camp, as did 
Gideon and his servant Phurah, and perhaps you 
will have cause to say with him, "Arise, for the Lord 
hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian !" 
Judg. vii. 15. Attain the mastery of your bow by 
practice, and you shall no longer turn your backs in 
the day of battle. 

6. There is one further suggestion, and the series 
will have an end. Of all means of gaining confi- 
dence in the truth, none can be compared to this : 
to become personally experienced in its power. It can 
w r ound, and it can heal. Open your bosom to its ef- 
ficacy. Ye who have meditated in the word, day 
and night, have no distrust of its power. It has 



128 DISTRUST OF THE WORD. 

made you what you are; it is yet to make you 
wiser, purer, stronger, and happier. Pray, without 
ceasing, that God would fulfil in you " all the good 
pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with 
power." 2 Thess. i. 11. All the conquests of reli- 
gion are so many new steps of Christian experi- 
ence; new exercises or new subjects; and all ex- 
perience is by faith. Say continually, "Lord increase 
our faith!" This is the victory that overcometh the 
world, even our faith. 1 John v. 4. Thus exer- 
cised, you will rise above all doubt as to the armour 
and the bow ; believing, you will wonder at your 
foregoing timidity; and when all the church shall 
thus deeply feel the energy of the Word, the closing 
words of this passage shall come true : " Then Je- 
hovah awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty 
man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he 
smote his enemies in their retreat ; he put them tc 
a perpetual reproach." 



CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

BY 

GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 

PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE, VIRGINIA. 



For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all 
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of 
their salvation perfect through sufferings. — Heb. ii. 10. 

Man is a creature of sensation before he is capa- 
ble of reasoning and moralizing. His first pains and 
pleasures are those resulting from the exercise of his 
merely animal senses. His ear, his eye, his taste, 
his touch, his smell, first awake his soul to con- 
sciousness, and let in the light of joy upon the 
hitherto darkened mind. After these he is compe- 
tent to reason, and then capable of moral sensibili- 
ties. What period of time, and what amount of 
enjoyment, are written out in the records of his 
conscious felicities, before he experiences the higher 
happiness of his rational and moral nature, it is im- 
practicable to determine. They will vary according 
to the infinitely varying characteristics of the physi- 
cal organization and of the mental and moral struc- 
ture. It is obvious, however, that in all cases they are 
very considerable. Infant humanity reaps a large 
harvest of harmless joys from the wide fields of na- 

10 (129) 



130 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

turc, and habits of reliance upon these, as its chief 
good, become strongly fixed at an early period. 
These habits are often encountered in subsequent 
efforts to develope the higher faculties of the soul. 
We find it extremely difficult to give a reflective 
turn to the current of thought ; to lead the mind 
away from the external to the internal ; to divert 
the affections from the pleasures of mere sense, to 
the deeper flow, and more enduring satisfaction, of 
spiritual contemplations. 

Here lies the philosophy of the general fact, that 
within the sphere of religion, the externals, the mere 
outward drapery, dazzles the eye and arrests the at- 
tention, whilst the inner, spiritual substance, passes 
unnoticed. Children in years and knowledge see 
with the eye and hear with the ear, while with the 
heart they understand not. Let religion put on an 
outward gorgeous ceremonial ; let her appear ar- 
rayed in purple and scarlet ; let her head wear the 
jewelled coronet; let her majestic service be accom- 
panied with all the enchantments of choral and in- 
strumental harmonies, and the undeveloped mind 
will hail her w r ith exquisite delight ; but let her ap- 
pear meek and lowly, humble and unadorned, and 
there is no beauty seen in her ; she is as a root out 
of a dry ground, despised and rejected of men. 

Thus the Church, in the period of her nonage, was 
attracted by the splendid and imposing ritual of the 
Levitical dispensation. The visible symbols, the 
gorgeous embellishments, the outward solemn pomp 
and parade, rilled the eye and the ear, and capti- 
vated the imagination of a people not yet grown to 
maturity in the things of the Spirit. From this 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 131 

state of necessary pupilage, under tutors and gov- 
ernors, the Church must, however, pass ; but the 
transition will, of course, be accompanied with 
strong emotions and a violent struggle. Like the 
incipient efforts of the youthful mind to take in an 
abstract thought, and to reflect upon its own actions, 
the Israelite turns away with difficulty from the ven- 
erable and long venerated rites prescribed by Moses, 
to the unostentatious simplicity of Gospel institu- 
tions. David's Lord, in becoming David's Son, has 
laid aside the external appliances and trappings of 
worldly grandeur; and, therefore, to the carnal Jew, 
he is what he seems to be, and consequently is 
treated with contempt. " Can any good thing come 
out of Nazareth ?" This is the stumbling stone, this 
the rock of offence over which the great body of the 
Israelites fell and were broken. We have Abraham 
to our father, we had Moses as our leader, and 
David as our king : the brazen altar, the golden can- 
dlestick, the gilded tabernacle, the glorious ark of 
the testimony, the gorgeous temple, the outstretched 
wings of the golden cherubim, the solemn choirs, 
and all the majesty of that magnificent service — 
oh, how shall we abandon this, all this, for Him 
who was born in a stable, cradled in a manger, 
crucified at Golgotha ! 

Entrenched behind these prejudices lie the great 
body of the Hebrew people, Paul's brethren accord- 
ing to the flesh. Behind these fearful barriers had 
the apostle himself lain, in all the confident security of 
individual and national self-righteousness. There- 
fore did he feel and fear for them ; and, therefore, 
against these apparently impregnable bulwarks did 



132 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

he direct the first discharge of his heavenly artil* 
lery. AVell aware that, whilst these prejudices re- 
mained, no arrow could penetrate the breast, he 
opens up to them at once the true dignity of the 
king Messiah, as found in his personal character, 
not in his external decorations. By presenting the 
pre-eminent grandeur and glory of the Son of God 
he aims to remove the offence of the cross. This 
he does in the first chapter, where he introduces 
him as Prophet, Creator, and King, and demon- 
strates, by abundant testimonies of Scripture, his 
lordship over the universe. 

Now, if the Son holds pre-eminence over all in 
telligent nature, and if all the angels of God wor- 
ship, him, how much more should we reverence his 
teachings, and bow to his supreme authority ! And 
if we should neglect either, how can we escape the 
fearful consequences ? 

From this practical inference, the apostle passes 
over to the objection so naturally recurring to the 
Hebrew mind : If the Messiah stands thus pre-emi- 
nent above all created intelligence, how came he to 
the degradation of the manger, the cross, and the 
tomb ? How is it possible to reconcile such contra- 
dictory states ? If he be the Son of God, and Lord 
of the universe, why hangs he on a tree ? If God 
were his Father, wherefore did he permit the pain- 
ful, humiliating, and contemptuous treatment of his 
only begotten and well beloved? Physical evils 
have their root in moral causes ; could such sorrow 
and anguish, as he endured, be without a cause ? How 
can such extremes be brought together without im- 
peaching the love, the wisdom, and the justice of God? 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 133 

To this the apostle presents the testimony of ac- 
knowledged Scripture. The eighth Psalm is uni- 
versally allowed to refer to the Messiah. This the 
Hebrews maintained, and here is proof that the Son 
must be, for a little time, lessened in comparison of 
the angels, in order that he may suffer death for every 
child of God. The humiliation of Christ is not a 
bald fact, detached from his moral and legal rela- 
tions ; not a mere arbitrary freak in the Divine gov- 
ernment; not an outburst of popular phrenzy out- 
side of the Divine economy; not a spontaneity, 
having neither antecedent nor consequent. On the 
contrary, it is a part of the Divine plan of universal 
government; which plan embraces eternity and all 
its contents, minute and magnificent. It is a link 
in the endless chain of causes and effects, by which 
Jehovah 

" Hangs creation like a precious gem, 
Though little, on the footstool of his throne." 

The mystery of the Word made flesh loses its para- 
doxical character the moment its legal relations are 
understood. Should it appear that, for an adequate 
reason, the Lord of glory bowed the heavens, and 
came down, and veiled his divinity in human flesh; 
should ends be answered, by this amazing transac- 
tion, in the moral government of the universe, meet 
and worthy of the Governor, then our amazement 
must cease, all that is paradoxical must pass away, 
the harmony of the divine attributes be displayed, 
and God stand justified, in all his acts,. before the 
intelligent universe. And this is our position, " For 
it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom 



134 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to 
make the Captain of their salvation perfect through 
sufferings. " 

An act, or work, is said to become a person, when 
it is such as people of good taste would generally 
expect from his known character and condition. It 
implies suitableness, propriety, and consistency; and 
pre-supposes a usual order of things. A dress is 
becoming when its texture, material, colour, and 
form, are such as is ordinarily found on persons of 
the same rank, in such circumstances. Gorgeous 
attire were unbecoming at a funeral ; good works, 
Paul tells us,, are the modest apparel "which be- 
cometh women professing godliness." 

" For whom are all things," marks the final cause 
— on account of whom — for the manifestation of 
whose glory. " By whom are all things ;" this covers 
the work of creation and government — by whom the 
universe was made, and by whom it is sustained, di- 
rected, and controlled. The phrase, " bringing many 
sons unto glory," has reference to >the Captain of 
Salvation, as the object of the action described in the 
expression, "to make perfect through sufferings;" 
this last means, to complete, to finish up — as on the 
cross He said, "it is finished" — completed, brought 
to a close — all the bitter ingredients of the cup are 
exhausted. 

"Bringing many sons unto glory," is delivering 
men from degradation, shame, and sin, and conduct- 
ing them to holiness, and happiness, and heaven. 
The term " Captain" is descriptive, also, of the work; 
it means a leader in the way — one who goes before, 
and directs, guides, and draws others onward in the 



135 

same way. " These follow the Lamb whithersoever 
he goeth." 

The doctrine of our text then is, that the great 
ivorlc of mans salvation, by the sufferings of Christ, is 
consistent with the character of God, as the Creator, 
Governor, and Proprietor of the universe. 

In the discussion of this subject we must con- 
sider, 

I. The worh to be performed — bringing many sons 
unto glory. 

II. The means of accomplishing this ivorlc — the 
sufferings of Christ. 

III. The consistency of these two combined, with 
God's character as Creator, Governor, and Proprietor 
of the universe. 

I. The work — bringing many sons unto glory. 

They are at a distance from glory. All mankind 
are by nature in a degraded and ruined condition — 
those who are to be brought unto glory equally with 
others ; and a rescue from this is implied. 

This degraded state involves condemnation under 
the law; and of course the first movement towards 
leading them to heavenly glory, is their deliverance 
from condemnation. Until such deliverance is ef- 
fected, they cannot take the first step in the way to 
glory. How this can be effected we shall see in its 
proper place. 

But again, the state of heavenly glory is unattain- 
able except as the reward of holy obedience. Life 
and eternal joy are positive blessings, and can be 
conferred only in consequence of positive compliance 
of the divine law — "if thou wilt have life, keep the 
commandments." These two pre-requisites regard 



136 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT.. 

the legal relations of those who shall be brought 
unto glory; other parts of the work regard their 
moral qualities. 

The spiritually dead man cannot walk in the way 
of life. These sons must be made alive before they 
can follow the Captain of their salvation. " Ye must 
be born again." Kenovation to spiritual life must take 
place. 

No unbelieving and impenitent man can see God's 
face in peace. u He that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
" Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 
True faith and sincere repentance belong to this 
work. 

The state of glory is a state of purity ; into it 
nothing unclean can enter. Be ye holy, for I am 
holy. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 
These sons must be sanctified before they can enter 
the gates of glory. 

Heaven is the home of active benevolence. " God 
is love, and he that dwelleth in- love, dwelleth in 
God, and God in him." But the heart of man is 
naturally at enmity against God; it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be. This work 
involves, therefore, the slaying of the enmity, and 
the shedding abroad, in the heart, of this heavenly 
love. 

The entire persons of these sons are to be brought 
unto glory ; not the souls only, but also the bodies. 
This work, then, includes the resurrection of the bo- 
dies, and their entire transformation into the like- 
ness of his glorious body. " Beloved, now are we 
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 137 

nhall be, but we know that when lie shall appear 
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as 
he is." 

II. The means of accomplishing this icorJc — the 
sufferings of the Captain of their salvation. 

When the law has pronounced its sentence there is 
no evasion ; it must be executed. Justice is an es- 
sential attribute of God ; his law can pronounce none 
but a just sentence ? and all the holiness of his cha- 
racter is pledged to its execution. " Though hand 
join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished." 
If Jesus has pledged himself to bring many sons unto 
glory, he has therein pledged the removal from them 
of the sentence of condemnation, which can be ef- 
fected only by enduring it. "Die, he or justice 
must." There is no other method of breaking the 
yoke of bondage, and letting the captives sold under 
sin go free. That this method is practicable, the 
Scriptures abundantly testify. In verse 14, it is 
very explicitly stated, as the object of the incarna- 
tion, u that through death he might destroy him 
that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; and 
deliver them who, through fear of death, were all 
their lifetime subject to bondage." So in chapter 
ix. 15 — " That by means of death, they which are 
called might receive the promise of eternal inherit- 
ance." " Who his own self bare our sins in his own 
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should 
live unto righteousness ; by whose stripes ye were 
healed." 1 Peter ii. 24. " All we, like sheep, have 
gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own 
way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
of us all." Isa. liii. 6. So throughout the typical sa- 



138 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

crifices of the old law, this is the leading thought — • 
the death of Christ, our passover, procures exemp- 
tion to us from death. No language of man, no 
symbol, no figure of speech, can ever he devised to 
express this master idea more clearly, fully, or for- 
cibly. The sons who are to be brought into glory 
are condemned and ruined; their leader in the way 
of life must and does place himself under their sen- 
tence, and meet the penal claims of God's justice. 
For this reason he must become incarnate. " Foras- 
much as the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood" (of humanity) "he also himself likewise 
took part of the same." 

This doctrine is not incidentally taught, not occa- 
sionally to be met with in the Bible, but it is pre- 
eminently the doctrine of the book. It is all pervad- 
ing ; it is the alpha and the omega. Take it out of 
the Bible, and it is no longer the book of God ; strike 
it out of the system, and the sun is gone — darkness 
reigns. Annihilate the law of gravitation, and the 
material universe is a chaos ; annihilate the doctrine 
of atonement, and the moral universe is a chaos, 
" Other foundation can no man lay." 

But we have seen many other items in the work ; 
many other stones are necessary to the building be- 
sides the foundation ; therefore, the relative position 
of this doctrine of atonement has much to do in en- 
hancing its importance. The foundation stone in an 
edifice may be rough, unsightly, and buried beneath 
the earth ; it may have less labour bestowed upon it 
than others, but in importance it is inferior to none." 
This, however, may not be owing to its intrinsic pro- 
perties, but to its relative position. Without it the 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 139 

house cannot stand ; all the other stones must fall ; 
or rather, could not rise into an edifice at all. So 
the atonement is indispensable as a pre-requisite to 
all the other doctrines of salvation. But for this, 
the doctrine of justification through the righteous- 
ness, that is, the active obedience, of Christ imputed 
to the sinner, and received by faith alone, must re- 
main a cold and dead abstraction. No man can be 
justified by the perfect righteousness of the Son of 
God, and by consequence receive life eternal, whilst 
he abides under condemnation, and so in death. He 
cannot be both condemned and justified, dead and 
alive, at the same time. Eternal life can be given 
as the reward of obedience only ; the obedience of 
.Christ in our nature. This, and this alone, entitles 
the believer to life ; but before he can possibly receive 
and enjoy it, he must be delivered from condemna- 
tion imposing death. He must be pardoned ; and par- 
don, that is, the lifting up and removing of his sen- 
tence of death from him, can be effected only by 
Christ's suffering under the law for him. When 
Christ takes away sin by the sacrifice of himself; 
when he unites the sinner to himself by faith, and 
applies to him the blood bought pardon, then the 
merit of his positive righteousness becomes actually 
available ; the sinner puts on the spotless wedding 
garment, and stands justified and complete in him. 
This relative position of the two doctrines of atone- 
ment, and of justification proper, is referred to by 
our apostle, in Rom. iii. 24 : " Being justified freely 
by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus" — the redemption, the releasing, by paying 
the proper price, Death is the medium through which 



140 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

his righteousness becomes actually efficient to oul 
justification. 

Now, as with this, so it is with all other parts of 
the work under consideration. Still, it will be kept 
in mind, that these two, atonement by Christ's death, 
and righteousness by his obedience, regard man's legal 
relations; the other parts enumerated regard his 
moral character ; and yet they stand in the same 
order of subsequence to the former. Of course, I 
speak not of order as to time, but as to nature. Could 
we, however, mark time here, it would most probably 
be found, that what I have called the natural, and 
might perhaps more correctly call the logical order, 
was also the order of actual succession as to time. 
But as this is only partly practicable, it is not neces*. 
sary to affirm it here. 

Thus regeneration is dependent on the atonement 
of Christ, because the mission of the Holy Spirit, 
who alone can change the heart and new create the 
soul, is dependent upon the Saviour's intercession; 
and all his power, as our advocate with the Father, 
springs from the perfection of his work whilst on 
earth. Had not he finished this work ; had not he 
been made perfect through sufferings, he could not 
have risen from the dead, nor ascended to glory, nor 
appeared as our advocate, nor sent the Spirit into 
the soul for regeneration and conversion. This chain 
of relations Peter uses in his pentecostal address, and 
with it he binds the yoke of Christ upon the necks 
of three thousand of the former servants of Satan. 
This same chain the Saviour throws around his 
hearers at the first sacramental supper, where his 
longest recorded address was delivered. " It is expe- 



GEO. JUNKIX, D. D. 141 

client for you that I go away; for if I go not away, 
the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I de- 
part, I will send him unto you." John xvi. 7. The 
entire work of the Holy Ghost, then, in the regene- 
ration, conversion, faith, repentance, holy living, love, 
joy, peace, of the sons of God, unto their entire sanc- 
tification and glorification, is dependent upon the 
finished atonement of the gracious Mediator. So, 
also, is the final and grand act of raising them from 
the dead, and presenting them before the presence of 
the Father's glory. " If Christ be not risen, then is 
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain;" 
but "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also which sleep in Jesus shall God 
bring with him." But for the perfection of his suf- 
ferings, he could not rise from the dead and ascend to 
his glory, much less lead his many sons thither. How^ 
inconceivably important is this finishing operation ! 
How transcendently glorious are the issues from death ! 
What hopes cluster around the cross of Calvary! 

These, all these, must pass away, and black de- 
spair for ever brood upon the human spirit, unless he 
drink the bitter cup, and cry " it is finished !" 

III. We proceed now to the main topic of our text — 
The consistency of accomplishing this work by these 
means, with Jehovalis character as Creator, Governor, 
and Proprietor of the universe. 

The salvation of lost man is a display of divine 
love under a peculiar form — that called mercy ; the 
extension of the highest favours to persons the most 
undeserving. It is the outgoing of goodness, and, 
if viewed alone, must command universal admiration, 
and call forth praise from all, and gratitude un- 



142 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

bounded from the favoured race. As to its consist- 
ency with God's benevolent character, there can be 
no question. If Jehovah were all love, all goodness, 
all benevolence, we have in this work its counter- 
part. But he hath not so revealed himself to us, 
either in his works or in his word. Other attributes 
belong to his nature. Justice and judgment are the 
habitation of his throne, whilst mercy and truth gc 
before him. His providence teaches the same lesson. 
Evils innumerable are visited upon men in this world, 
and a dread surmise springs up in the mind, unaided 
even by a revelation, that the present are not all the 
evils man may possibly endure at the hand of his 
offended and insulted Creator. But this idea is no 
longer vague and undetermined when we open the 
sacred volume. Here it shines forth with terrible 
clearness ; all doubt passes away ; God is holy, just, 
and true ; he will punish crime ; he will vindicate 
the claims of justice. 

Two views divide mankind on this subject. One 
theory assumes as its basis, the principle of infinite 
benevolence : God is good, benevolent, and merciful. 
This is the controlling attribute of his nature ; in- 
deed, they virtually deny him any other, and say 
there is no such attribute as justice essential to his 
nature ; it is a contingency in the Creator. He may 
exercise justice, or he may omit its exercise ; he may 
punish crime, or he may omit its punishment. Vin- 
dictive justice belongs not to God. It is blasphemy, 
in the opinion of these men, to represent God as 
angry ; as a vindictive Being, marking sins as they 
occur, and pouring his wrath sooner or later upon 
the culprit. This, in their estimation, makes him 



GEO. JUXKIX, D. D. 143 

malevolent and revengeful. But such philosophers 
have closed the Bible, and shut one of reason's eyes. 
They forget that it is written, " Though hand join in 
hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished." " The 
wages of sin is death." "God is angry with the 
wicked every day." " The Lord will not hold him 
guiltless who taketh his name in vain." To this class 
of men, more benevolent than God, he addresses a 
severe rebuke — " Thou thoughtest that I was alto- 
gether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove 
thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now 
consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in 
pieces, and there be none to deliver." 

They also close the eye of reason, and therefore 
see not that justice is as necessary an attribute in the 
government of God as in that of man. As man cannot 
exist without justice, as society would instantly run 
into utter chaos and ruin, so is this glorious attribute 
indispensable in the Divine government; and God has 
exhausted human language in order to enforce a due 
apprehension of this idea upon the human under- 
standing. But still there are multitudes who will 
not believe it, even upon the innumerable testimonies 
written in God's holy Word. But their unbelief does 
not make the testimonies void ; nor shall their un- 
belief last for ever, for " the Lord trieth the righteous, 
but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his 
soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, 
fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this 
shall be the portion of their cup." Psa.xi. 5, 6. "And 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels." Matt. xxv. 46.41, 
God is a just God, and a Saviour, Justice is an at- 



144 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

tribute essential to his being ; love or goodness is so 
also ; but mercy, which is the flowing forth of love 
toward transgressors, is a contingency. It is not 
necessary to the being of God, that he extend his 
boundless goodness to any particular class of sinful 
beings, or to all sinners. But if he in sovereignty do 
so extend it, his justice must be satisfied; its claims 
must be met. The question before us is not, whether 
the salvation of men is consistent with the Divine 
character ; on this there is no dispute ; but whether 
the accomplishment of this work, hy the sufferings 
of Christ, be consistent. Does the exposure of the 
only Beloved to shame, and ignominy, and death, 
comport with the dignity of the supreme Governor ? 
Assuming the scriptural facts, that God did send his 
Son into the world, expressly that he might obey and 
die under the curse of the law for lost men ; that God 
did put into the hands of the Captain of Salvation 
the bitter cup of Divine wrath, and when he cried 
and prayed that it might pass, if possible, the Father 
did not remove it ; that it pleased the Lord to bruise 
him ; to make his soul an offering for sin — this un- 
deniable scripture doctrine, this suffering of Jesus, 
by express appointment of God the Father, is this 
consistent ? Can it be reconciled with his character 
as Creator, Governor, Proprietor of all things ? The 
affirmation is Paul's assertion, and the proof now de- 
mands our attention. 

1. It became him as Creator. The character of 
the maker is seen in the thing made. As long as 
men reason from cause to effect ; as long as like 
causes produce like effects, will they judge of the 
tree by its fruits. It is on this principle that history 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 145 

teaches. From a man's actions we infer his cha- 
racter. This, too, is the productive principle of all 
the inductive sciences. We note things as they ap- 
pear, classify them, and infer the laws of nature 
from her works. This standard of judgment is safe; 
and, therefore, it is universally relied on. Our busi- 
ness, then, is to view the work of salvation in the 
method here contemplated, and then to inquire 
whether the attributes, or powers, or qualities dis- 
played therein, are such as become the Creator, God. 
And we see, first, the highest manifestation of jus- 
tice : he would not spare even his own Son. 

Again, truth shines forth in connection with 
justice, as it is a fulfilment of the Divine declara- 
tion, that sin should be punished. 

And, again, love is conspicuous : God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son to die 
for the lost. 

Again, mercy to rebels, a modification of love, is 
pre-eminent. Here we have such an exhibition of 
Divine perfections as cannot be found in any other 
work of the Creator. We merely name them now, 
as in a moment they will come up in another 
relation. 

2dly. Under the administration of a perfect govern- 
ment, suffering bespeaks previous wrong-doing. 
Painful endurance must have its origin in trans- 
gression of law. No moral being can be made to 
endure physical calamity, but in consequence of 
moral evil. This truth is assumed as an element in 
morals. All men acknowledge it — feel it, as it were, 
and instantly, upon seeing a person suffer peculiar 
calamity, begin to seek for its moral cause. " Who 
11 



146 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

did sin, this man or his parents ?" " No doubt this 
man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped 
the sea, yet vengeance (justice) suffereth not to live." 
The only error, in reasoning here, is the not keeping 
in mind the sin of nature ; original sin, as the gene- 
ral cause of all calamity, and in supposing that God's 
government, like man's, was always specific, and 
every particular calamity was a precise infliction for 
some particular sin. But the general idea is the 
same, which lies at the foundation of all moral gov- 
ernment. " The soul that sinneth, it shall die ;" 
"the wages of sin is death;" "sin shall not go 
unpunished." 

Sufferings do fall sometimes upon persons who 
have not themselves, individually, transgressed the 
law. God, in his providence, does visit the iniqui- 
ties of fathers upon their children. Did not Israel 
groan under calamities unutterable, for the sin of 
David in numbering the tribes ? Is it any thing 
new for the fearful scourge of war to fall upon a 
whole people for the sins of their rulers ? Have 
not thousands of millions of widowed mothers and 
fatherless children, been crushed under calamities 
too dreadful to endure, to gratify the pride of kings, 
and maintain the figment of their blood-stained 
honour ? 

But all these cases involve the fact of some pre- 
existent relation ; some connection between the par- 
ties affected, in consequence of which the calamities 
were brought about. In many cases we are unable 
to understand the reasons of the connection, and 
perceive how the results necessarily follow. But 
this, by no means, disproves such connection as jus* 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 147 

tifles the Divine government. Human ignorance is 
not an adequate condemnation of Divine justice. It 
may be right that the children suffer in consequence 
of the father's crimes, though we may not be able to 
explain it. Yea, we must admit it, or charge God 
foolishly, which is to turn atheist. When the 
Psalmist saw the wicked prospering, he could not 
reason out the case, and was tempted to deny God's 
just administration, until he went to the sanctuary, 
and learned from revelation the doctrine of a future 
judgment. So must we admit the facts of provi- 
dence, and fall back upon the revealed explanation, 
that he does visit the iniquities of the fathers upon 
the children, of the rulers upon the people. 

Now, whilst we maintain the personal, spotless 
purity of the divine Redeemer, we must find some 
way to account for the fact of his sufferings, without 
charging the universal Governor foolishly. There 
must be a reason for his laying upon him the iniqui- 
ties of us all. Such connection between Christ and 
his people does exist, as renders it right and proper, 
and every way befitting the attributes of the Divine 
character, to visit the Captain of Salvation with 
the perfection of sufferings. All the difficulties of 
the case vanish before the light of the glorious 
truth, that God, in eternity, appointed the Son as a 
covenant head of his people ; a surety who volunta- 
rily guaranteed their deliverance from death and 
introduction to eternal glory, by meeting all the 
requirements of law on their account. The Scrip- 
tures accordingly assure us, that believers were 
chosen in him before the foundation of the world ; 
that he became the surety of a better testament; 



148 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

that he freely offered himself as the head of his 
body, the Church. " Lo, I come to do thy will ; 
God I take delight." Now it is this covenant rela- 
tionship, voluntarily entered into by the glorious 
Mediator, which constitutes the just reason why the 
Father laid on him the sins of a ruined world, and 
why, in the fullness of time, he endured the unut- 
terable anguish of the curse for crimes that we had 
done. These countless heavy woes fell on him, as 
the necessary and legal consequences of his surety- 
ship. 

Here we have the principle, and the only princi- 
ple, by which we can "justify the ways of God to 
men." This covenant of grace, which no created 
intellect could have devised, which, no human wis- 
dom could have discovered, which could originate 
only in the bosom of everlasting love, and find its 
way to created minds only by supernatural revela- 
tion — this everlasting covenant, ordered in all 
things and sure — this alone solves the mystery, and 
makes known how God can be just, and yet the jus- 
tifier of the sinner that believes in Jesus. On the 
cross of Calvary justice and mercy meet together, 
righteousness and peace, the righteousness of God 
and the peace of man, embrace each other. When 
Jesus said, " It is finished," the sword of God's jus- 
tice was bathed in heaven; the command, " Awake, 
sword, against my Shepherd," was fulfilled, and 
yet no injustice is done. This blow is no injury to 
the Shepherd, although he himself had personally 
done no evil, but always felt and acted out the prin- 
ciple, " My meat is to do the will of him that sent 
me, and to finish his work." Still, " it pleased tho 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 149 

Lord to bruise him." How can this be ? Because 
Jesus, u his own self bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree." Now the position before us is, that 
this smiting and its effects, under these circumstan- 
ces, are becoming in God, the universal Governor, for 
whom, and on whose account, all things were made. 

That its effects are so, is manifest on its face, for 
the perfection of government consists in promoting 
the greatest good, and preventing the greatest evil ; 
that is, in the perfect administration of justice. But 
this work of saving men secures to them the highest 
happiness, and for the longest duration, even for 
ever and ever. 

Nor let it be objected, that he does not save all ; 
some go away into everlasting punishment, for we 
have no question as to what he did not do; our 
question is whether the thing he did be consistent 
with good and wise government. And this we af- 
firm with confidence. In saving men by blood no 
injustice is done to them, nor even to those whom 
he does not bring unto glory; they receive nothing at 
his hand against which they can complain; but, on 
the contrary, infinite blessings which they personally 
have not merited. Let it not be objected, again, in 
reference to this last, that giving what a man is not 
entitled to is not justice, any more than withholding 
what he is entitled to. This is true, but it is not in- 
justice. It is not a matter against which complaint 
can lie as a wrong thing ; no, not even from a third 
party, to whom similar benevolence is not extended. 
u Is thine eye evil, because I am good ? may not I 
do what I will with mine own ?" is the most rea- 
sonable reply of the Master to such objection. 



150 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Besides, the benevolence displayed in this salvation, 
does not, properly speaking, spring from govern- 
mental power, but from sovereign love. Pardon is 
not an act of governing power, but of sovereignty 
and benevolence. 

The greatest evils are also prevented. Sons 
brought unto glory sin no more. Their deliverance 
from physical is not more perfect than from moral 
evil, and both are perpetual and eternal. 

So the smiting of the Shepherd, under the circum- 
stances, is proper; for the Shepherd stands, in the eye 
of the law, as the head of his body, the church — the 
sons brought into glory. He became their surety, 
and, by necessary consequence, their failure devolves 
upon him the whole legal responsibilities of their 
guarantee. From these he could not shrink. Jus- 
tice demanded of him what she had a right to exact 
from his people. The law rightly held them respon- 
sible to death, and it rightly exacted death from 
him ; so, conversely, he having met the rightful re- 
quisition, having died the death, has a rightful 
claim for their exemption from death. 

This transaction is equally consistent and becom- 
ing the universal Proprietor, for whom are all 
things. 

The final cause of the universe, is the glory of its 
Creator — " for thy pleasure they are and were cre- 
ated." ' ' The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to 
enjoy him for ever." This being undeniable, the ma- 
nifestation of mercy, heaven's darling attribute, pro- 
motes this end in a very high degree; yea, "glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will 
to men." There is no higher attribute of Jehovah 



151 

than his love, none holier than his justice ; there are 
no two that to created reason seem more at va- 
riance. Man sms : the trembling culprit stands self- 
condemned, heaven-condemned, before his Judge; 
the arm of Almighty justice is raised ; the terrible 
blow that must smite the wretched sinner down to 
an everlasting hell is just ready to descend: when 
lo ! Love, divine love springs forward — " Father Al- 
mighty, forbear ! On me let the stroke of thy ven- 
geance fall : smite the Shepherd !" The fiery blade 
is seized, and its burning point turned in upon the 
bosom of the innocent victim. Love bleeds — the lan- 
guid head droops : " It is finished" — the agony is 
over — the curse exhausted. Mercy rises from the 
tomb, a lovely form, a new attribute, heretofore un- 
known in the universe of God. Angelic messengers, 
now for the first time beholding in its fulness the glory 
of their God, escort the heaven-generated, but earth- 
born stranger to the realms of day. The song of sal- 
vation swells from myriads of golden harps, and all 
heaven is filled with the echo of the beloved name. 

In conclusion, let us glance at the bearings of this 
stupendous fact in the Divine government upon the 
destinies of the moral universe. 

It is the act confirmatory. The nail that fastened 
Christ to the cross, gave the rivet of unchangeability 
to government throughout all its departments, human 
and divine. 

It is confirmatory, in that it exhibits to all the 
intelligent creation, the highest evidence it has ever 
had, perhaps the highest it can have, of the immu- 
tability of Divine justice, and so of the stability 
of the moral system. The government of God is 



152 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

not, as man's too often is, one of mere expediency; 
it is based on fixed and unalterable principles, and 
will remain the same for ever. Here and now, if 
ever, justice must relax. Had it been possible, this 
cup would have passed from the Saviour's lips with- 
out his drinking it : for never was such an appeal 
made by intelligent nature under suffering — u Oh my 
Father ! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." 
It did not pass; thereby giving confirmation, full 
and perfect, to the unchangeableness of justice. 

We may therefore expect that human govern- 
ments will be stable, regular, fixed, and efficient, in 
proportion to the people's knowledge and practice 
upon the great doctrine of atonement — of salvation 
by the sufferings of Christ. To this facts corre- 
spond. In what countries do we find the best govern- 
ments, the most justice, the freest, and the purest, 
and the happiest people ? What says history ? What 
is the testimony of the present ? One voice comes 
down to us through the long line of ages ; one voice 
rises up from the world's whole surface — that voice 
directs us to Calvary. Where the doctrines of Christ 
and him crucified are most known, there are to be 
found the freest, and happiest, and best governed 
nations. " These have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore 
are they before the throne of God, and serve him 
day and night in his temple." How deep then the 
debt, and how solemn the obligation, of all free na- 
tions, to the true evangelical church of God ! How 
happy the people who wear the yoke of Christ ! 

This confirmation extends to the lost portion of 
our sinful race, who go away into everlasting fire. 



.-J 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 153 

That justice unchangeable, which upholds the Di- 
vine throne, falls as a crushing weight upon all who 
aim at tearing down this throne, and grinds them to 
powder. They are sealed up in endless death ; but 
the sufferings of Christ do not produce this. Will 
the justice, which yielded not even to his strong 
crying and tears, relax, in order to let go the rebel 
who, to all the sins of his life and nature, adds the 
crowning one of unbelief? Shall lie escape who 
tramples under foot the Son of God, and puts him to 
an open shame, accounting his precious blood an un- 
holy thing ? Shall not double vengeance fall upon 
his soul ? He puts away from himself, by a wilful 
and deliberate resistance, the only salvation which 
infinite love ever provided; how then can he be 
saved ? He seals his own condemnation, and justice 
confirms the deed for ever. 

Still more obvious is the confirmation of God's re- 
deemed in the joys of eternal salvation. Perish they 
cannot, for justice immutable has no claim against 
them, and has proclaimed the fact in raising Jesus 
from the dead; and trumpet tongues of thousands 
of angels have heralded the glad tidings throughout 
the universe. His blood has washed away the guilt 
of all their sins, and procured a full pardon. His 
sufferings procured him admission to his throne of 
glory in the heavens, sent the Holy Spirit down, 
created their hearts anew, sanctified their entire soul 
and body, arrayed them in his own glorious righte- 
ousness, and filled all their soul with heavenly 
love. Thus redeemed, regenerated, justified, and 
sanctified, how can they be kept from glory? — 
Where is the power to reverse the sentence passed 



154 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

upon them, and turn them back to perdition ? 
" Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's 
elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that con- 
demneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that 
is risen again." " Who shall separate us from the 
love of Christ?" 

To fallen angels, the sufferings of Christ in the 
room of his people afford fearful evidence of the 
hopelessness of their case. If God spared not his 
own Son, if justice could not relax to save him, 
how shall it abate its demands to save them ? This 
may account for the deep interest Satan and his de- 
mons felt in Christ's mission and work; their eager- 
ness to know whether this Jesus was the Messiah, 
and whether he could be diverted from his purpose 
to satisfy justice, by his death; and for all their ma- 
chinations to thwart his plans for leading his sons to 
glory. 

Is Jesus a confirming head of moral influences to 
the holy angels and the entire universe ? By con- 
firming head is, of course, meant, not that he re- 
deemed angels, but that his sufferings stood in such 
relations to the Divine government, and to them 
under it, as to put an end to their probation, and 
place them beyond the possibility for ever of falling, 
as Diabolus and the demons fell. Until the resur- 
rection of Christ, the conception is, that the holy 
angels were in a probationary or trial state, liable 
individually to sin, as Satan did, as Adam did, and 
perish under God's wrath. But after he had finished 
his work, and ascended to glory, that state ceased, 
and the Divine power and protection henceforth 
secures them for ever, as it does the saints redeemed; 



GEO. JUNKIN, D. D. 155 

so that they can go no more out, and are subject no 
more to the dread possibility of sinning, but rest in 
the ineffable felicity of a full assurance of life 
eternal. 

To the affirmative of this question my mind 
strongly preponderates, and for the folllowing rea- 
sons : 

The language of the text seems to imply it. " It 
became Him for whom are all things." In this 
precise relation, as universal Proprietor and Gover- 
nor, there was a suitableness and propriety in put- 
ting the cup into his hands. But where is the 
ground of this propriety, if the other parts of the 
universe are uninfluenced by it ? How could they 
be uninterested in the glory of their Governor ? But 
if they are to be both influenced and interested, it is 
difficult to see any other way, than that this glorious 
transaction confirms the Divine government and 
them in the blessedness of its protection. 

Again, this idea corresponds with the interest felt 
by the holy angels in the concerns of Christ and his 
Church. " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent 
forth to minister unto them who shall be heirs of 
salvation ?" Do not they watch over the camp of 
Israel for good, and combat the legions of hell? 
Did not they herald the advent of their Lord Crea- 
tor as our Lord Redeemer ? Did they not guard his 
steps from the manger to the cross ? Did they not 
cluster in embattled phalanx there, marking with 
intensest interest the agony in which he died ? Did 
they not, on wings of light, bear the glad tidings of 
his resurrection to the regions of immortal day? 
Did they not now, and for the first time, learn from 



156 CONSISTENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the Church below the manifold wisdom of God, and 
understand those things into which they had long 
desired to look? Let it, then, be supposed that 
these heavenly hosts were, till this hour, on proba- 
tion, and not assured that Satan might not yet pre- 
vail, and they fall and perish ; but that now confir- 
mation came, and their destiny is for ever safe. Oh ! 
what a moment of joy to them ! With what glad 
emotions they hail the rising of the Sun of Kighte- 
ousness ! The mystery of redemption is unveiled, 
and the mystery of confirmation thrills through the 
boundless universe ! 

My third reason for favouring this idea, is found in 
its own magnificence. It seems to me the brightest 
ray which shines from this Sun of Righteousness. It 
enhances the riches of his mercy, and magnifies the 
glory of his cross. " Our earth's aceldama — this 
field of blood" — becomes the battle-ground on which 
is decided the fate of the universe. The groans of 
Gethsemane, and the agonies of the cross, establish 
the throne of Jehovah Jesus, and put into his nail- 
pierced hand the sceptre of dominion over the entire 
realm of nature, and all the creatures of God wor- 
ship him. Surely " it became Him, for whom are 
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing 
many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their 
salvation perfect through sufferings." 



EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

BY 

THOS. SMYTH, D. D. 

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CHARLESTON, S. 0. 



Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness 
unto sin : hut yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive 
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness 
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are 
not under the law, but under grace. — Romans vi. 13, 14. 

The first thing which demands our attention, in 
unfolding the meaning of this passage of the Word 
of God, (which is so pregnant with meaning that we 
must pass by any introductory observations,) is the 
duty which is here laid down as binding upon all 
men. This duty, to which we are all summoned 
by the authority of this inspired and divinely com- 
missioned ambassador from the courts of heaven, 
is expressed both affirmatively and negatively. We 
are admonished what that is which we are required 
to do, and also what that is from which we should 
abstain. 

It is commanded that we shall not yield our mem- 
bers as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. 
The word translated " yield," means to give up to 
the use and control of another. " Your members, " 
include not only the organs of the body, but also the 
powers, faculties, and capacities of the mind, and is 

(157) 



158 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

used as a periphrasis for yourselves, that is, the whole 
man. as composed of a living body and a reasonable 
soul. These members we are not to yield as instru- 
ments unto sin. Sin is here personified as a mon- 
arch, ruler, or guide, and we are forbidden to allow 
to sin, in any of these capacities, the use or control 
of our mental or physical powers. When so em- 
ployed, they are perverted, abused to a purpose con- 
trary to their original design, and alienated from that 
service wherein they ought to be employed. If they 
are so devoted, voluntarily, and by our own choice, 
we are guilty of robbery, treachery, unfaithfulness, 
and disobedience, since we are stewards of these 
heavenly gifts, and responsible for their proper and 
intended use to the righteous Judge of all. Thus 
to yield them, therefore, as servants to sin, is a 
crime of inexcusable turpitude, for which we shall 
be held justly responsible at the bar of heaven. On 
the other hand, does sin lay siege to our hearts, and 
by the open assaults and fiery darts of grievous 
temptations, or by the secret wiles of more insinu- 
ating artifices, seek to gain possession of our cita- 
del, and reduce us to a state of subjection and of 
vassalage ? then are we to regard him as an usurper 
and a rebel, as without any right or title to such 
authority, and as one to whom on no conditions, and 
under no possible extremity, are we permitted to ren- 
der our obeisance. Whatsoever may be the seve- 
rity of his threatenings ; whatsoever the strength 
and power with which he storms our hearts, and to 
whatever straits we may be brought by his long pro- 
tracted warfare, yet at the peril of our soul's salva- 
tion let us not yield unto him. He that so yields 



159 

becomes the servant of sin, the captive of Satan, and 
the enemy of God. 

It is our duty, therefore, as subjects of the moral 
government of God; as having been created, pre- 
served, and redeemed by him, and as being under 
his absolute control, to " yield ourselves unto God" 
— that is, to give ourselves up to his service and 
control. "And yield your members as instruments 
of righteousness unto God ;" that is, yield yourselves 
in all your powers and faculties, whether of mind 
or of body, that they may be employed in God's ser- 
vice, and to his honour and glory. Now it is here 
evidently implied, as it is throughout the whole Word 
of God, that men are at present in such a lapsed and 
ruined condition as to be alienated from the service 
and love of God, and enthralled by the love and do- 
minion of sin. Such is the disposition of mankind 
universally, that they listen with a ready ear to the 
voice of the tempter, and are incredulous to the fore- 
warning of Jehovah. They Bow willingly to the 
yoke of sin and Satan, hard and ignominious though 
it be, and they openly and blasphemously declare by 
their practical enunciations, which speak louder than 
any words, " As for God we will not have him to 
reign over us. We love the wages of unrighteous- 
ness, and after sin we will go." 

It is also here as plainly taught us, that however 
this may be the determination of mankind, and how- 
ever unanimous they may be in thus casting off the 
yoke and authority of God — that, nevertheless, the} 
are still under his government, under untransferrable 
obligation to obey him, and amenable to that law 
whose wrath is revealed from heaven, not only 



160 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

against all unrighteousness, of whatever character and 
degree, but also against the ungodliness of all men, 
of whatever name, rank or station. 

It is further and very clearly taught that, how- 
ever men may be now guilty, and held justly ac- 
countable for the endurance of that penalty in 
which, by one man's disobedience, we are all in- 
volved; however they may have ratified that sin 
by their own voluntary choice of a course of like 
disobedience; and however habituated they may have 
become to the service of iniquity, they are not one 
whit the less under obligation, or less bound to render 
unto God a full and perfect obedience. By the very 
fact that God has permitted them to live, given to 
them the exercise of a free agency, and presented to 
them motives for such obedience, they are impera- 
tively required, by every consideration of justice, to 
render unto God, and to his service, those powers and 
faculties with which he has' endowed them. These 
powers are in no sense theirs, and cannot, therefore, 
without robbery, be withdrawn from the superin- 
tending care and claims of him by whom they were 
originally given, and by whom they are constantly 
sustained. 

God has placed in the breast of every man a will, 
to which is given authority and power to govern and 
direct the movements of the inner man. By this 
the passions, affections, and desires move and exer- 
cise their being, and without its consenting fiat no 
rational act can be performed. Now, in the present 
corrupt state of human nature, this will has been 
seduced into the service of sin, and withdrawn from 
all natural allegiance to the dominion of heaven. 



THOS. SMYTH, D. D. 1G1 

God, however, does not release from subjection 
this will, which he alone could either give or main- 
tain. He, therefore, enters his demand in the con- 
science of every human being; and, calling heaven 
and earth to witness, he solemnly forbids that ho- 
mage which the sinful heart of man renders to the 
god of this world, on the peril of everlasting death ; 
while he encourages its devotion to himself and his 
service by the promise of everlasting life. And it 
is of God's infinite mercy that any such demand is 
made to that which is in itself of no account to 
him, and of which he has been so unworthily de- 
spoiled. It is because of God's unspeakable mercy 
we are spared at all, borne with in any patience, or 
permitted the opportunity of returning to our alle- 
giance to him. And that we should be invited thus 
to submit our wills to him, and to devote ourselves 
to his glorious service, by those motives which are 
presented in the gospel of his Son, this truly is a 
mystery of love, whose height, and depth, whose 
length and breadth, is beyond our comprehension. 

You will observe, too, how the exhortation re- 
quires not that we should, in this life, be absolutely 
free from sin as a law or principle within us, which 
would be impossible. The evil tendency, or law of 
our members, remains even in regenerated men, and 
is still ready to war against their renewed nature. 
This tendency we are not required, therefore, utterly 
to destroy, which it were impossible, while in this 
body of siii and death, that we should ; but volun- 
tarily to submit to this inward propensity, or to 
yield ourselves to its suggestions, so as to do its will, 

this is forbidden, and this we may not do. On the 
12 



1G2 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

contrary, to be resolutely determined not to submit 
to this law of concupiscence or sin, but, contrariwise, 
to follow out, at every cost, the dictates of the law 
of holiness ; this is what we are under obligation to 
perform at once and without delay, with full know- 
ledge of what is required of us ; with serious con- 
sideration; with a determinate judgment; with lib- 
erty of spirit, having disengaged ourselves from all 
other masters ; with a belief in and acceptance of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and of God in him as our 
only Lord, Sovereign, and Master ; with all humility, 
joy, and gladness; and with the entire surrender of 
all that we are and have to his guidance and direc- 
tion. This is that duty to which we are each called 
by all that is winning in mercy, and by all that is 
fearful in that wrath which burneth even to the 
lowest hell. 

This duty is ours as fully as if we retained all 
man's original power and inclination to discharge it. 
It is plainly and absolutely commanded. And it is 
by simply believing that in doing what God has 
thus warranted and required, God will as certainly 
" work in us both to will and to do ;" it is by thus 
casting ourselves before his footstool, in the entire 
surrender of ourselves to him in Christ Jesus, and 
trusting to Christ's righteousness and meritorious 
intercession, that every sinner has been, or ever will 
be, made able and willing to u yield himself unto 
God, and his members as instruments of righteous- 
ness unto him." 

But this brings us, in the second place, to the con- 
sideration of the principle upon which this duty is 
here made to rest. This, alto, is expressed both 



163 

negatively and affirmatively. We are exhorted and 
required to devote ourselves to God, and to with- 
draw all allegiance from the service of the world, by 
the assurance that we are "alive from the dead." 
Herein is contained the principle upon which, as the 
only true and living root, the apostle would graft 
the duty of obedience. We are called upon to 
make this self-dedication unto God, not that we may 
thereby obtain life, but as those for whom that life 
has already been obtained ; not that we may merit 
life, but as those upon whom it has already been 
most graciously conferred ; not that, by any sacrifice 
on our part, it may be wrought out, but as those for 
whom it has been already purchased by the precious 
blood of Christ. The principle of the apostle is, 
therefore, diametrically opposite to the principle of 
legalism in all its forms. It is at direct variance 
with all the prescriptions by which men, in their 
arrogant pretensions to wisdom, would secure this 
heavenly blessing. " Yield yourselves unto God," 
they would tell us " that, by such a holy devoted- 
ness, ye may commend yourselves to God, and' thus 
secure the blessings of life and salvation at his 
hands. Enter, therefore, upon this way of formal 
and ceremonial purification, since, without holiness, 
it is impossible that you can ever see God." Such 
would be the exhortation of those who build their 
hopes upon a righteousness within them, and not 
upon a righteousness without and beyond them, and 
who thus seek to be justified for their own doings, 
and not for the work and merit of " the Lord our 
righteousness." 

But how widely different is the prescription of this 



164 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

divine apostle. He inspirits us to this act of a self- 
devoting sacrifice, not so much by the prospect of 
what may in future be gained by it, as by the thought 
of what has been already achieved on our behalf; 
not so much by the hope of conciliating the divine 
clemency, as by the glorious assurance that God has 
been already reconciled. "As those who are" already 
" alive from the dead," and to whom there is held 
forth the promise of an ascension to glory, even to 
that glory with which Christ has been glorified, are 
we here urged to " yield ourselves to God." 

There is a peculiar force and expressiveness in this 
declaration, which plucks up by the very roots all 
dependence, f(3r the production of holiness, upon the 
ability or self-righteousness of the creature. "As in 
Adam all died, so in Christ shall all" the redeemed 
" be made alive ;" "for as by one man's disobedience 
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one 
shall many be made righteous." By sinning in the first 
Adam, as our public head and representative, we were 
all constituted sinners, and are treated by the divine 
Lawgiver as guilty in his sight, "and so death hath 
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Thus 
were we, and our entire race, under sentence of death, 
and bound over to the endurance of this dread penalty. 
And the righteousness of such a sentence we have all 
attested by the fact, that out of the universal race 
of man, there has not yet been found "one righteous, 
no, not one ; all having gone out of the way, each in 
his own way" of sin and folly. But by becoming 
united to the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, 
the head and representative of the whole family of 
the redeemed, we are constituted righteous through 



THOS. SMYTH, D. D. 165 

the merit of his righteousness, which is imputed to 
us, and are treated by God accordingly. " There is, 
therefore," we are assured, " now no condemnation 
to them that are in Christ Jesus." Death hath no 
dominion over them. The law has no demands 
against them. For since death has been endured by 
their Surety on their behalf, and since the law has 
been magnified and satisfied for them, they can walk 
forth in all the freedom of deliverance, and rejoice in 
"the glorious liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
them free." 

This, then, is one view of this all powerful mo- 
tive, by which the apostle urges us to an entire devo- 
tion to God. Inasmuch as all the claims of that 
law, which you had broken, have been fully met, and 
the uttermost of its denounced penalty has been 
borne ; since He who thus suffered for you still 
lives to intercede on your behalf; and since this 
whole plan of salvation was of God's devising, and 
has been completed unto God's well pleasing; as 
those, who are thus redeemed from the threatened 
penalty of death, and who are thus made legally en- 
titled to the sentence of divine approval, "yield 
yourselves unto God," "who is now in Christ Jesus 
reconciling the world unto himself." Instead, there- 
fore, of urging us to holiness, by the motive of thereby 
meriting the Divine favour, we are urged to it by the 
very fact, that thereby we can merit no favour, that 
propitiation having been already secured by the me- 
diation of the Son of God: and instead of inviting 
to the pursuit of holiness, that we may thus open 
up a way of access unto God, it is by the very plea 
that such a way has been already made plain and 



166 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

obvious, that we are encouraged to approach. It is 
no longer, therefore, argues the apostle, impossible 
for you thus to yield yourselves as sinners unto God, 
seeing that every let and hindrance has been removed; 
that an "atonement" has been made, and that God is 
now "just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly." The 
doctrine of salvation is thus adapted by the God of 
nature to the mightiest principle of nature — " for we 
are saved by hope." We are begotten by the Gospel 
to the blessed hope of an immortal life. We are cer- 
tified that the battle has been fought and the victory 
won, and that now there is announced to us, through 
Him who was mighty to save, that Gospel which 
bringeth good tidings of great joy, even "peace on 
earth, and good will to men." 

But, while in this argument of the apostle, there 
is an appeal made to the principle of hope, the most 
potent affection of our nature, this argument is also 
addressed to the principle of gratitude, which is per- 
haps one of the most pure, pleasant, and disinter- 
ested of those affections by which the heart of man 
is actuated. " Yield yourselves unto God as those 
that are dead." By the very fact, that you who 
were dead; dead in law, dead by the utterance 
against you of heaven's righteous sentence of ever- 
lasting death ; dead to all hope of any possible de- 
liverance; by the thought that you "are now alive;" 
and by the infinite mercy of God in Christ delivered 
from that condition of despairing wretchedness — 
"yield yourselves unto God." Withhold not that 
soul from God, which had been brought under the 
sentence of eternal death by its apostacy from him, 
and which has now been re-purchased from the hands 



167 

of eternal justice ; "not with corruptible things, such 
as silver and gold/' but by the endurance, in our 
stead, by God's only begotten Son, of all this deserved 
misery. 

Sin is here, as I said, likened to some cruel and 
despotic monarch, who, after he has seduced poor 
and deluded souls into his service, by the pleasures 
which he affords them for a season, then gluts his 
bloody and ferocious spirit, by putting them to fierce 
and endless torments. " The wages of sin is death." 
We are now in the position of those who, by the 
interposition of another, have been rescued from the 
grasp of this destroyer ; and we are, therefore, called 
upon to yield ourselves henceforth unto His service, 
by whom we have been redeemed, and by whom 
alone we can be preserved, and not again to yield 
ourselves to one from whose determined vengeance 
we were so mercifully and so wonderfully preserved. 
Let us take the recorded instance of that princely 
father, whose own son was found to be the first vio- 
lator of a law, the penalty of whose infraction was 
the loss of both eyes. In the yearnings of paternal 
love, and yet as governed by the mastering principle 
of sovereign equity, he desires to maintain justice, 
and yet exercise compassion. The prince, therefore, 
humbles himself, though innocent of the crime, to a 
substituted endurance of one half of the denounced 
penalty, and was deprived, on behalf of his guilty 
son, of one of his own eyes. Now, were that son 
again actuated with a desire, whose indulgence would 
incur the vengeance of the law, how ought he to be 
dissuaded from such a suicidal act, by the affecting 
remembrance, that he was now freed from the full 



168 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

endurance of that penalty, which he had in part 
suffered, through the satisfaction rendered to the law 
by the suffering and loss of another ? And how would 
his heart be made to relent, by the recollection that 
he who did so interpose on his behalf, was no other 
than his own offended father ? 

Now just such, though immeasurably stronger, 
is the appeal here made to us. We were condemned, 
not to the loss of our eyes merely, but to the loss of 
life itself; not to the loss of our bodily life merely, 
but to the loss of our spiritual and eternal life also, 
involving, as this necessarily does, the misery of 
eternal death. We "were dead in trespasses and 
sins," and " already condemned." And we may 
imagine, that having actually endured the bitter 
curse of death, we are again alive, through the mi- 
raculous and all merciful agency of the divine Ke- 
deemer. As those, therefore, who have been thus 
restored to life ; as those whose death is not again 
required to meet the claims of a violated law ; as 
those for whose deliverance salvation has been 
wrought out by none other than the very power 
against which we had so grievously offended ; we 
are persuaded not again to bring ourselves into bon- 
dage to sin and Satan, but to throw ourselves upon 
the mercy of Him " who hath loved us, and given 
himself for us," and who was made a curse for us, 
being put to death in the flesh, that we, through his 
death, might have everlasting life. 

Nor is this all that is contained within the com- 
pass of this heavenly principle. It makes its appeal 
not only to hope, which is the strongest, and to 
gratitude, which is the loveliest principle of our 



1G9 

nature, but also to the assured certainty of success, 
which must leave us inexcusable for our disobe- 
dience. "As those who are alive from the dead." 
Not merely does this teach us,, that by the merito- 
rious sacrifice and atoning death of the Lord Jesus 
Christ are we alive legally, the sentence of the law 
having been endured by another. Not merely does 
it teach us that, being thus alive, we are bound 
gratefully to live unto Him who thus died for us, 
and by whom, also, we may be completely redeemed; 
but it teaches us, also, that if we will only believe 
on this Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as thus able, 
and willing, and mighty to save us, yea, "even to 
the uttermost," and though we be the " very chief 
of sinners," there is in him an omnific virtue by 
which we shall as certainly be made alive spiritu- 
ally. We shall be made " alive unto God" as we 
have hitherto been alive only to sin. We shall be 
so wrought upon by the power of that Spirit, whose 
divine agency Christ has secured for us, by virtue 
of the everlasting covenant, that we shall become, 
as it were, " new creatures in Christ Jesus," " being 
born again" by a new and celestial birth. If any 
man will thus cast himself, in a believing acceptance 
of him, upon Christ Jesus, Ct he is a new creature," 
for " though he were de.ad he shall be made alive," 
even for evermore. Christ Jesus is thus our head, not 
only legally, but also vitally. He is the source, not 
only of justification from the guilt of sin, but of 
sanctification also from the power of sin. He has 
not only wrought out a work of grace for us, he 
also accomplishes a work of grace within us. He 
opens the heart. He sends into it his quickening 



170 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

spirit. He imparts to the soul spiritual energy and 
life. 

He, therefore, in whom we are to believe, has 
power also to enable and dispose our hearts to 
believe upon him. He, to whom we are to yield 
ourselves, is able also to make us willing for such a 
consecration ; and he, to whose service we are to be 
given, is also ready to fit and prepare us for all its 
requisitions, and to " give us power to become the 
sons of God." 

Are you, then, now disabled by sin, and far gone 
from original righteousness ? Christ, who raised up 
the dead by his mighty power, is also able to 
quicken your souls, and to make them alive unto 
God. Are you under the dominion of sin, and 
bound down hand and foot by its iron fetters? 
Only yield yourselves to Christ, and those chains 
shall burst asunder, and fall from around you as did 
the cerements of the grave from around the reno- 
vated Lazarus, or as did the fetters from the freed 
limbs of the imprisoned apostles. He who speaks 
the word gives the power. He who commands also 
inspires. He who bids the dead come forth, breathes 
into him the breath of life, and empowers him to 
walk forth in newness of life. He who requires you 
to yield yourselves unto him, is able also to assure 
you of your success, for "sin shall not have do- 
minion over us." 

And are you under a debt of obligation to God's 
holy and righteous law, which you are incompetent 
to satisfy, and exposed to its vengeance, which you 
dare not confront? Nay, but my fellow-sinner, 
"you are not under the law, but under grace." 



THOS. SMYTH, D. D. 171 

Yours is a dispensation of mercy, and not of justice. 
Yours is the offer of a free purchase and gratuitous 
pardon ; and the law itself rejoices, since " mercy 
and truth have in Christ Jesus met together, 
righteousness and peace have embraced each other." 

Neither is yours " the spirit of bondage, that you 
should again fear," but the spirit of freedom and of 
love, that you should draw near in confidence, and 
even boldness. The law, as your creditor, has no 
demand; for, in the obedience of Christ, the debt 
has been more than liquidated. 

If, then, there is any power in hope to inspire and 
animate the human breast; if there is any thing in 
gratitude to call forth its tenderest sensibilities ; if 
there is aught in the assurance of success to inspirit 
to noble daring ; if these motives are powerful, and 
the objects to which they lead invaluable, then 
surely there is in this argument of the apostle the 
law of evangelical holiness, and all the strength of 
divine principle. And hence may you perceive the 
ignorance and fatuity of vain and conceited men, 
who charge the doctrine of a free, unlimited, and 
gratuitous mercy, with the consequences of licen- 
tiousness in practice, and weakness in motive, or 
who fear to proclaim to men, in all its fullness, "the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God." The spirit of 
the Christian is free and not constrained. It is sponta- 
neous, and not forced. It is filial, and not slavish. 
It is cordial, and not formal. It is liberty, and not 
law. It is love, and not fear. 

The condemnation wherewith the finally impeni- 
tent sinner shall be everlastingly condemned will be, 
not that he could not discover the knowledge of the 



172 EFFICIENCY OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 

Most High, but that he would not come to the light, 
lest his deeds should be reproved ; not that he would 
not come unto God by his own power, which he 
could not do, but that he would not come unto God 
by Christ, who is " the way, the truth, and the life f 
not that he did not make himself whole when he 
was diseased, or alive when he was dead, or righte- 
ous when he was sinful, or holy when he was pol- 
luted, but that he would not come unto that blessed 
Saviour, who, as a physician, is able to restore him; 
who, as almighty to save, can even quicken souls 
which are spiritually dead, and who of God is made 
unto every one that believe th wisdom, and righte- 
ousness, and sanctification, and complete redemp- 
tion. 

Just, then, as inexcusable is the obstinate and self- 
destroyed sinner, as is the man who, when sick, re- 
fuses to send for a physician, or to receive his medi- 
cine when offered. Yes, just as everlastingly self- 
condemned will you be, my impenitent reader, who 
now in this, the day of thy merciful visitation, put- 
teth away from thee the things that belong to thy 
peace. Only continue in thy present course, and 
soon it will be said of thee, " but now they are for 
ever hidden from thine eyes, for thou hast destroyed 
thyself." " Because thou sayest I am rich, and in- 
creased with goods, and have need of nothing ; and 
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, 
and poor, and blind, and naked : I counsel thee to 
buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be 
rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, 
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; 
und anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou 



THOS. SMYTH, D. D. 173 

mayest see." "Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock : if any man hear my voice, and open the 
door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, 
and he w r ith me. To him that . overcome th will I 
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 
overcame, and am set down with my Father in his 
throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
the Spirit saith unto the churches." 



THE GOOD MAN. 



BY 

JOHN M'DOWELL, D. D. 

PASTOR OP THE SPRING GARDEN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



" He was a good man." — Acts xi. 24, first clause. 

This was said of Barnabas. He was a Levite, of the 
country of Cyprus. Some suppose he was one of the 
seventy disciples, whom our Lord sent out to preach 
the Gospel ; but of this we have no certain evidence. 
He introduced Paul to the apostles and disciples at 
Jerusalem, and assured them of his conversion. He 
was afterwards, for several years, the companion of 
Paul in his travels, and his fellow labourer in the 
gospel ministry; and he was with him, as a dele- 
gate from the Syrian churches to the famous Coun- 
cil at Jerusalem. There was finally a dissension 
between him and Paul, about taking Mark with 
them on a missionary tour, and they separated, and 
Barnabas went to Cyprus, and we hear no more of 
him. 

At the time, in the history of 'Barnabas, when 
the testimony in the text was given of him, he was 
at Antioch, in Syria, whither he had been sent by 
the church of Jerusalem, on hearing of a special 
work of grace in that city. When Barnabas came 

(174) 



JOIIX M'DOWELL, D. D. 175 

to Antioch, " and had seen the grace of God, he was 
glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of 
heart they would cleave unto the Lord." Our text 
is given as a reason why he was glad at the pros- 
perity of the religion he witnessed, and why he ex- 
horted the new converts as he did ; " for he was a 
good man." The term good here expresses the 
whole religious character of the real Christian. In 
this sense the term will be understood in the ensuing 
discourse, the object of which will be 

To give the character of the good man, or real 
Christian, and 

1. The good man has had his heart changed. No 
person, however amiable in the sight of men his 
natural temper may be, has naturally a heart that 
is good in the sight of God, or in the sense in which 
the word is applied to men in the Scriptures. In 
his natural state every person is "dead in tres- 
passes and sins." Eph. ii. 1. He " receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness 
unto him ; neither can he know them." 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
He is carnal, for " that which is born of the flesh is 
flesh," or carnal. John hi. 6. And "the carnal 
mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7. 
Such, according to the Word of God, is the native 
character of all men, and such was once the cha- 
racter of every one who is now a good man. 

But, by the special operations of the Holy Spirit, 
the naturally corrupt heart of him who is now a 
good man has been changed. He has been "re- 
newed in knowledge, after the image of Him that 
created him." Col. hi. 10. And "after God," or 



L76 THE GOOD MAN. 

after his image, he has been " created in righteous- 
ness and true holiness." Eph. iv. 24. He has had 
imparted to him, by the Holy Spirit, a temper of 
conformity to the image and will of God. This 
change every good man or true Christian has ex- 
perienced; for we read, "Except a man be born 
again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except 
a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I 
said unto thee, Ye must be born again." John iii. 
,3, 5, 7. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature ; old things have passed away ; behold, all 
things are become new." 2 Cor. v. 17. The time 
and manner of this change may be different in dif- 
ferent persons, and in some it may be more marked 
than in others ; but the change itself every good 
man, without exception, has experienced; and in 
vain do any lay claim to the character of a good 
man if they are strangers to regeneration. 

2. The good man has come to Christ by faith, and 
has placed his reliance for pardon and acceptance 
with God solely on his merits. With Paul, "know- 
ing that a man is not justified by the works of the 
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, he has believed 
in Jesus Christ, that he might be justified by the 
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law." 
Gal. ii. 16. Sensible of his sinfulness, guilt, and de- 
served condemnation, and that he has no righteous- 
ness of his own to merit forgiveness and acceptance 
with God, and approving of the way of salvation 
through Christ, he has renounced his own righte- 
ousness, and cordially accepted Christ as the Lord 
his righteousness ; and on his merits alone he relies 



joiix m'dowell, d. d. 177 

for justification. Christ is the good man's all in the 
article of justification. 

He is his all, too, in the article of sanctification. 
He feels that he is, of himself, unable to subdue his 
corruptions, and do his duty, and lead a life of holi- 
ness before God, and that Christ alone is the be- 
liever's life. He therefore relies on him, by his 
Spirit, to mortify sin within him; to impart, pre- 
serve, and quicken grace; to strengthen him to 
resist temptations, and do his duty; and to keep 
him, through faith, unto final salvation. He is. 
sensible that without Christ he " can do nothing," 
and therefore he relies on him for every thing. 

3. The good man is a true penitent for sin. He 
has been convinced of sin, and felt himself to be a 
sinner; he has been convinced of the odious and 
evil nature of sin, and of his desert of the wrath of 
God for his sins, and that God would be just in pun- 
ishing him ; he has sorrowed on account of his sins, 
been self-abased before God, and, with contrition of 
heart, made confession to him; and he has, with 
hatred of sin, turned from it unto God. This is 
repentance unto life, and every good man has exer- 
cised it ; for our Saviour declared, " Except ye re- 
pent, ye shall all likewise perish." Luke xiii. 3. 
And the good man not only repented, when he 
first became pious, but he still repents. He is sen- 
sible that sin still cleaves to him, and dwells in him, 
and that his best services are marked with imper- 
fection and sin. Sin is still odious and evil in his 
sight ; he still feels that he deserves the wrath of 
God for his sins ; he still mourns that he ever sinned 
against God, and still sins, and comes short of his 

13 » 



178 THE GOOD MAN. 

duty; and he still confesses his sins to God, and 
hates them more and more. 

4. The good man is, in general, correct in the 
articles of Ms faith. It is an incorrect and danger- 
ous sentiment, that it is a matter of indifference 
what a man believes if his life be good, for the Word 
of God requires us to believe the truth he has re- 
vealed, as well as do what he has commanded ; and 
the doctrines of the gospel have such an intimate 
influence on the temper and practice, that it is very 
doubtful whether a man's life ever be really good, 
when his faith, in regard to the great doctrines of 
religion, is wrong. There are some doctrines which 
are fundamental in the Christian system ! The 
belief of such doctrines is essential to the character 
of the good man. These doctrines are such as the 
following : the depravity and ruined state of man ; 
salvation only through Christ ; that he is a divine 
person, God equal with the Father ; that he made 
atonement for sin, which is the only just foundation 
of a sinner's reconciliation with God ; justification 
only by faith in him ; regeneration and sanctifica- 
tion by the Holy Spirit ; also a divine person, and 
the necessity of holiness of heart and life. These 
doctrines good men of all denominations believe, 
though they may differ on some points of less im- 
portance. 

The good man, whatever name he may bear, takes 
the Scriptures implicitly as the rule of his faith. He 
does not set up his reason, or inclination, above the 
Word of God ; he desires to know what the truth of 
God is, and as far as he knows, he believes what 
God has revealed ; though he may not be able fully 



JOHN- m'dowell, d. d. 170 

to explain or comprehend it, and though it may be 
contrary to his preconceived opinions, and humbling 
to his pride. 

5. The good man leads a lioly life. If the heart 
be good, the outward conduct will also be good. " A 
good man, out of the good treasury of the heart, 
bringeth forth good things." Matt. xii. 35. The good 
man faithfully endeavours to keep a conscience void 
of offence towards God and man ; " he does justly, 
loves mercy, and walks humbly with God." Mic. vi. 8. 
And, •' denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, he 
lives soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
world." Titus ii. 12. He takes the Word of God im- 
plicitly as his rule of conduct ; he reads and searches 
it, that he may know the will of his heavenly mas- 
ter; and he follows its directions, however self-de- 
n} 7 ing and unfashionable they may be ; whatever 
sacrifices they may require him to make, and to 
whatever opposition and trials they may expose him. 
He does not part with some sins while he retains 
others, but renounces all sin. Though a sin may have 
been to him as dear as a right hand, he cuts it off; 
or a right eye, he plucks it out. He does not desire 
to reconcile the service of God with that of Mammon, 
and endeavour to serve both ; but the Lord is his only 
master. He gives him an undivided heart, and he 
makes every pursuit, even that of the world, subser- 
vient to his service. He faithfully endeavours to 
know his duty, and when he knows it, to perform 
it, whether it be to God, his fellow men, or himself. 

In the performance of the duties which he owes 
more immediately to God, he engages habitually, and 
with delight in his worship. He reads and searches 



180 THE GOOD MAN. 

the Scriptures; he meditates upon them; "his delight 
is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he 
meditate day and night." Psa. i. 2. With David he 
can say, " I have loved the habitation of thy house, 
and the place where thine honour dwelleth." Psa. 
xx vi. 8. And he is statedly seen at the house of 
God, in the seasons of public worship. He is not 
willingly a half day worshipper on the Sabbath. 
The tabernacles of the Lord are amiable to him ; and 
when he is necessarily kept from the house of God, 
he feels it to be a privation and affliction. He loves 
to meet with the people of God, for his worship, on 
other days beside the Sabbath ; and when other du- 
ties will permit, he embraces the opportunity. He 
delights to renew his covenant with God at his table, 
and obey the command of his Saviour, "Do this in 
remembrance of me." He is not ashamed to own 
before the world, that he is a disciple of Christ ; on 
the contrary, he glories in it. He loves the Sabbath; it 
is to him the best day in all the seven. He is not seen 
travelling on this sacred day, or riding, or walking 
for pleasure, or engaging in secular business, or spend- 
ing its hours in idleness. The Sabbath is not a 
weariness to him, but he esteems it a "delight, the 
holy of the Lord, and honourable," and he remem- 
bers it to keep it holy. 

He lives a life of prayer; and he prays, not merely 
because he feels it to be a duty, to which he is driven 
by conscience, but because he loves to pray. His 
affections are engaged in prayer, and he presents to 
his Heavenly Father the sincere and earnest desires 
of his heart ; and when in prayer his affections are 
languid, and he does not meet his God, he is dis- 



, D. D. 181 

satisfied with himself, and mourns. He is daily in 
his closet engaged in secret prayer, at least morning 
and evening. Is he the head of a family ? He is 
the priest in his own house ; and there, with his col- 
lected family, he daily offers the morning and the 
evening sacrifice. Instead of allowing prayer to give 
way to worldly business, when they seem to inter- 
fere, he makes worldly business yield to prayer. It 
is with him a settled rule, that whatever is neglected, 
prayer must not be, in its stated seasons. Follow 
the good man to his daily occupations, and could you 
witness what passes in his heart, you would find his 
thoughts frequently going out after God, and fixing 
on divine things, and devout ejaculations ascending 
to heaven. In short, the good man engages with 
delight in all the ordinances of divine worship. 

In the performance of the duties he owes his 
fellow men, the good man is equally faithful. In 
his conduct towards them he follows the rule laid 
down by his divine Master : " All things whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so 
to them." Matt. vii. 12. He is strictly honest and 
just in all his dealings ; and if he has any thing 
that belongs to another, when he discovers it he 
restores it, or makes restitution. 

And he not only does justly, but he also loves 
and practices mercy. He has pity on the poor. 
According to the Word of God, " a good man showeth 
favour, and lendeth; he hath dispersed, he hath 
given to the poor." Psa. cxii. 5, 9. He feels also for 
the spiritual necessities and miseries of others, at 
home and abroad, and is ready, by his prayers, 
labours, and contributions, to do them spiritual 



182 THE GOOD MAN. 

good. He is a kind and obliging neighbour; he 
sympathizes with the distressed ; he rejoices in the 
prosperity of others, and grieves at their adversity ; 
" he rejoices with them that do rejoice, and weeps 
with them that weep." Rom. xii. 15. 

He is tender of the good name of others ; he is 
no slanderer nor tale-bearer; he "rejoiceth not in 
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth f he bridles his 
tongue, and suffers it not to be used to the injury of 
others. When variances arise, between him and 
others, he readily becomes reconciled, and forgives 
them who have injured him. According to apos- 
tolic injunctions, "Laying aside all malice, and 
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil 
speakings," 1 Pet. ii. 1, he " puts on, as the elect of 
God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, 
humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, for- 
bearing, and forgiving one another." Col. iii. 12, 13. 
The peace of God rules in his heart, and he even, 
loves his enemies with a love of benevolence, desir- 
ing their good, and disposed to assist them when 
distressed or in need. According to the command 
of his divine Master, he " blesses them that curse 
him, does good to them that hate him, and prays for 
them which despitefully use and persecute him." 
Matt. v. 44. 

He faithfully performs the duties of his stations 
and relations in life. Is he a magistrate, high or 
low ? he discharges his official duties in the fear of 
God, and with impartiality according to law and 
justice. Is he a private citizen ? he respects the laws 
of his country, and is subject to every ordinance of 
man which does not interfere with the rights of con- 



JOHN" M'DOWELL, D. D. 183 

science for conscience sake. He "renders to all 
their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to 
whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom 
honour." Bom. xiii. 7. Is he a husband ? he loves 
his wife, and is not bitter against her. Col. iii. 19. 
Is the Christian a wife ? she reverences her husband, 
Eph. v. 33, and submits herself unto him as is fit in 
the Lord. Col. iii. 18. Is the good man a parent? he 
loves his children, and trains them up in the way 
they should go. Is he a child ? he honours and 
obeys his parents in the Lord. Is* he a pastor? he 
loves the souls of his people, and watches for them 
as one who must give account, and labours diligently 
for their spiritual good. And is the good man one 
of the flock ? he esteems his pastor " very highly in 
love for his work's sake." 

With respect to himself, the good man denies 
himself sinful gratifications. He is sober, temperate, 
and chaste. He " keeps under his body, and brings 
it into subjection ;" he " mortifies his members, 
which are upon the earth," and he " crucifies the 
flesh, with the affections and lusts;" he stands 
aloof from the fashionable vices of the world. You 
will not find the good man at the gaming table, in 
the ball room, or at the theatre. The Word of God 
directs him, " Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, 
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks 
to God and the Father by him." Col. iii. 17. And, 
under the influence of this and similar instructions, 
he stands aloof from these places and amusements. 
He is " not conformed to this world, but transformed 
by the renewing of his mind ;" he comes out from 
the people of the world, and is separate ; he con- 



184 THE GOOD MAN. 

fesses himself a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, 
and that he desires a better country, even a heavenly. 
His conversation is in heaven, and his affections 
are there, set on things above, where Christ sitteth 
at the right hand of God. Such are the temper and 
conduct of the good man, as described in the Word 
of God. 

It is true he is not a perfect man ; for in many 
things he offends, and comes short of his duty, and 
his best services are imperfect. But this grieves 
him, and causes' him to complain with the apostle 
Paul, " The good that I would I do not ; but the 
evil which I would not, that I do. I find a law that 
when I would do good, evil is present with me. I 
see another law in my members, warring against the 
law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to 
the law of sin, which is in my members. wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death." Eom. vii. 19, &c. The good man is 
not satisfied, as some professors appear to be, with 
just so much religion as they think will gain them 
admission into heaven. He delights in the service 
of God, and he desires greater conformity to him, 
more zeal in his service, to glorify him more, and to 
enjoy more intimate communion with him. And he 
cannot rest satisfied with present attainments as 
long as he comes short of perfection in holiness, 
which will be as long as he continues in the body. 
He, therefore, with Paul, "forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, presses toward the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." Phil. iii. 13, 14. 



JOHN m'dowell, d. d. 185 

Such is the character of the good man, as drawn 
by the unerring pen of inspiration. 

Who of us possess this character ? Each one ought 
to ask himself, is this my character ? Are any ready 
to say, the description is too highly wrought ? my 
character wilt not stand the test? In reply, I ask, 
is the description more highly wrought than the 
Word of God authorizes and requires ? In most of 
the description, the language, and in a considerable 
part of it, the very words of Scripture have been 
used ; and by the Scriptures we must be tried, and 
if our character does not correspond to the character 
of the good man as there drawn, in vain do we hope 
that we are the people of God. 

Some who profess religion will probably, in view 
of this discourse, say, either the description which 
has been given of the good man is not correct, or we 
have deceived ourselves. It would not be strange 
if the latter part of this alternative were true, with 
respect to some professors ; for, doubtless, many pro- 
fess religion who are strangers to its reality. Our 
Lord said, " Strait is the gate and narrow is the way 
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find 
it." Matt. vii. 14. He called his flock, to whom it 
is the " Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom," 
a " little flock." Luke xii. 32. And he declared that 
in the clay of account, many will say to him, "Lord, 
Lord," claiming a relation to him as his people — to 
whom he will say, " I never knew you ; depart from 
me, ye that work iniquity." Matt, vii. 23. 

The Scriptures are complete and fixed. Nothing 
can be added to them or taken from them. Many 
desire, and endeavour to persuade themselves, that 



180 THE GOOD MAN. 

they are less strict than they appear to be, in their 
obvious meaning ; or, at least, that their strict letter 
related only to primitive times — but this is a great 
and dangerous mistake. The way to heaven is the 
same now that it was in the time of the Scripture 
saints ; and if we ever get to heaven, we must tread 
in the steps of those ancient worthies, who, through 
faith and patience, inherited the promises. We must 
come up to the scriptural standard of true piety, in 
its plain and obvious meaning. The Scriptures can- 
not be changed or relaxed, to come down to our de- 
sires or practice, as to the way to heaven. Let us 
make sure work in the great business of our salva- 
tion. The interests of our immortal souls are at 
stake, and to make a mistake in regard to such 
interests, would be inexpressibly dreadful. 

The Word of God declares, that " the righteous 
are scarcely," or with difficulty, " saved" — and if this 
be so, " where," as the sacred writer adds, " shall the 
ungodly and the sinner appear ?" If the good man 
alone can enter heaven — and it is so difficult, as we 
have seen, to be really a good man ; and if many 
who profess to have this character, and manifest 
something of it, are deceived, and will fail at last — 
where shall those appear who have no pretensions 
to scriptural piety, manifest nothing of it, and care 
for none of these things ? That they are in the way 
to perdition is as clear as a sunbeam. Let such be 
alarmed at their state, and while they are yet pri- 
soners of hope be induced, without delay, to flee from 
the wrath to come ; and to flee by faith to Christ, 
the only Saviour, and enter into the narrow way of 
life, in which the good man walks. 



JOHN m'dowell, d. d. 187 

And let all who entertain a hope that they possess 
true religion, and are in the way to heaven, carefully 
and frequently examine themselves, and bring their 
character to the test of God's unerring word. And 
while they examine themselves, let them offer the 
prayer of the Psalmist, "Let me not be ashamed of 
my hope. Lord, search me, and try me, and see if 
there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the 
way everlasting." Amen. 



THE HOUSE OF GOD, 

BY 

W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW ORLEANS, 



One tiling have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after ; that I may 
dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the 
beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. — Psalm xxvii. 4. 

The sentiment of the royal Psalmist in this verse, 
is one of devoted attachment to the service of God. 
Many are the passages of holy Scripture that ex- 
press the great delight which the pious have found 
in the ordinances of the sanctuary. Those who 
have long been accustomed to the blessings of Chris- 
tian worship, and those who, like Gallio, care for none 
of these things, may not readily appreciate the value 
of the Christian Church, neither in a temporal nor 
spiritual point of view. Because the 'kingdom of God 
comeih not with observation, they see it not at all. 
Because its heavenly influences are noiseless as the 
dew, men acknowledge them not, although every 
day enjoying them. It is our purpose to consider 
some of the advantages which the House of God 

CONFERS UPON SOCIETY. 
(188) 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 189 

The House of God is the forerunner, ally, and 
supporter of the best forms of civilization. 

Civilization, whatever it is, in modern times owes 
its best estate to Christianity.* It is true that some 
ancient nations, as the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, 
Etrurians and Romans, attained to considerable emi- 
nence in refinement, in elegance of manners, and to 
honourable distinction in arts and arms without the 
Gospel. But it is also true that historians are agreed 
— first, that much of their knowledge, their philoso- 
phy, and of course their refinement, was handed 
down to them from their ancestors, that is, by tradi- 
tion from the sons of Noah; from whom are de- 
scended the whole human race, and who were doubt- 
less instructed in the religion of the Bible by their 
pious father. This opinion is supported by the an- 
alog} r that is to be found in their respective sj^stems 
of worship, of astronomy and of mythology, and by 
their own united testimony down to Aristotle — that 
all Icnoidedge teas derived from tradition. Hence, 
to become learned in ancient times, it was necessary 
to travel, not only because there were then no printed 
books, and but few MSS, and literary institutions 
were scarce, but chiefly that the traditions of all 
lands might be picked up. Their knowledge, and 
even their philosophy, was to be found in the songs 
of the Rhapsodists and the proverbs of their wise 
men. But, secondly, historians are agreed that even 

*" I know that the civilization of the age is derived from Chris- 
tianity, that the institutions of this country are instinct with the 
same spirit, and that it pervades the laws of the State, as it does 
the manners, and, I trust, the hearts of the people." — Gov. Ham- 
mond, of South Carolina, in his letter of the 4th Nov. 1844, to 
the Israelites of Charleston. 



190 THE IICUSE OF GOD. 

Phoenicia. Egypt and Greece, as also Persia and Rome, 
were not civilized without religion. Lord Wood- 
houselee expressly declares that Greece could not be 
civilized until the religion of the Titans was incor- 
porated with that of the Aborigines.* It was no1 
until the Pelasgi and the other tribes of Greece were 
taught to be religious, that laws were established 
among them. And thirdly, I ask any candid man 
whether the highest refinement ever known in Greece 
or Rome, even with all the light that glimmered upon 
them by tradition from the temple of the true God 
at Jerusalem, can be compared with that of the Gos- 
pel. I have not the time, nor is it necessary, for it 
has often been done by able hands, to draw a con- 
trast between the morals of the purest systems of 
heathen ethics and the precepts of Christianity. But 
I leave it to the honesty and intelligence of any well 
read community to say whether Socrates is to be 
compared with Jesus Christ. Nay, Rousseau, Jef- 
ferson, and Paine himself, have already acknow- 
ledged that Christianity, in the sublimity of its doc- 
trines, and the purity of its precepts, is immeasur- 
ably superior to any thing known to heathen philos- 
ophy. In a barbarous or savage state, passion pre- 
dominates over reason, and lust over conscience. 
The animal is gratified at the expense of the intel- 
lectual nature of man. But when this order is re- 
versed, when men are governed by an enlightened 

* " It is universally allowed that from the period of those 
strangers settling among them, the Greeks assumed a new cha- 
racter, and exhibited in some respects the manners of a civilized 
nation. The dawnings of a national religion began to appear, for 
the Titans were a religious people." — Tytler's Universal History ; 
vol. i. book i. chap. vi. p. 52. 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 191 

conscience, then civilization in its best form exists. 
But no such a state as this is found without the Gos- 
pel. The missionaries sent to Greenland laboured ten 
years without success, in attempting to civilize its in- 
habitants without the Gospel. Then they exhibited, 
with all the eloquence of fervid feeling, the doctrine 
of a Saviour crucified, with an effect that more than 
realized their most sanguine expectations. The at- 
tention of the people was arrested, they received the 
faith that purifies the heart, and works by lave ; and 
this laid the foundation for civilization. Schools 
among our own Indians have always failed, except 
when they have been established under the influ- 
ence of the Gospel. 

It is the testimony of travellers and of missiona- 
ries to foreign lands, that savages cannot be civilized 
by systems of mere education. It is true religion, 
and true religion only, that changes the heart ; and, 
until the heart is changed, there can be no real ele- 
vation of character, for out of the heart are the 
issues of life ; and, until it is changed by the grace 
of God, it is the hole of every foul spirit, and the 
cage of every unclean and hateful bird. How can 
sweetness of manners mark the intercourse of so- 
ciety so long as ferocious passion is permitted to 
rage and brutify the human mind, and put out the 
light of truth, and hush the voice of conscience ? 
Why has not infidelity supported missionaries in 
heathen lands? Why have infidels not civilized 
some island of the sea, or some spot of the globe ? 
Why, if the Gospel is not necessary as the fore- 
runner and ally of civilization ? Let them point to 
a single spot of earth in Europe, Asia, Africa, or 



192 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

America, or to a single island of sea or ocean that 
infidelity has civilized, refined, and blest. Let them 
point to a single family, neighbourhood, town or in- 
dividual that has been made better, that has been 
educated, that has been made more useful and 
happy by infidelity. The infidels of England and 
the United States waited until Christian missionaries 
had partially civilized India, and then they sent 
thither their own books. The cross first civilized 
the poor Hindoo — taught him to read — then the 
infidel goes and endeavours to turn his reading to 
wormwood. Christianity opens the fountain of 
knowledge, then infidelity attempts to turn it all to 
poison. The only way to civilize and to refine, and 
to give permanent elevation to any community, is to 
give it the Gospel. Erect the pulpit, and around it 
schools and benevolent institutions will spring up, 
as the thousand lesser stars follow the evening star. 
The acconrpaniments of the sanctuary are the 
living ministry, the preached gospel, the Sabbath, 
the ordinances of religion, and the blessings of edu- 
cation. Schools, acadamies, and colleges owe their 
very existence to the House of God. Ministers of 
religion are entrusted with the keys of the kingdom 
of knowledge, not to exercise despotism over the 
minds of men, but to impart truth for their re- 
demption from ignorance and vice. As a class, the 
clergy have ever been the first great leaders in the 
work of education. Harvard University owes its 
foundation to the dying munificence of an humble 
minister of the Gospel, who landed on the shores of 
America, but to lay his bones in its dust.* The 

* Everett's Orations. 



193 

great reform in our prisons, which has accomplished 
wonders of philanthropy and mercy, and made the 
penitentiaries of America the model of the penal 
institutions of the world, had its origin in the visit 
of a minister of the Gospel, with his Bible in his 
hand, to the convict's cell. The missionary enter- 
prise, the glory of our age, is an offspring of the 
house of God. From the sanctuary the champions 
of truth have gone forth to the heathen, conquering 
and to conquer, beneath 

" The great ensign of the Messiah 
Aloft by angels borne, their sign 
In heaven." 

A large portion of the literary institutions of the 
world are under the influence of the clergy. This 
is not strange.. They are in fact, and by profession, 
the friends of knowledge and of intellectual im- 
provement. Their religion is a system of light. In 
it is no darkness at all. It is their daily office to 
pour the light of mind and of the glorious Gospel 
upon the chaos of human intellect. Upon them, 
therefore, chiefly rests the responsibility of directing 
the education of youth. As a class, they create and 
circulate a larger portion of our literature than any 
other profession.* In judging of the literary excel- 

* No disparagement of the other learned professions is intended 
here. There are learned and good men in all professions and in 
all denominations. There are literary men, and friends of general 
education, who are not even pious men. But, as a class of men, 
clergymen are the educators of our country. In nine cases out 
of ten, those that are eminent as teachers and as friends of educa- 
tion, who are not in the ministry, are the sons or the pupils of 
clergymen. It is too rarely the case that men qualified to be the 

14 



194 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

lence of the performances of clergymen, it ought to 
be remembered that they appear before the public 
much oftener, and with less time to prepare their 
discourses, than any other class of public speakers. 
Who but clergymen come before an intelligent audi- 
ence two or three times a week, from year to year, 
with original discourses ? and that, too, usually 
without any change of circumstances, without any 
relief from the arduous duties of pastoral charges, 
and without the rivalry of the bar, or the excite- 
ment of the halls of legislation. No one perform- 
ance of any clergyman should be regarded as a test 
of his abilities, or of his literary attainments. It is 
a curious, but a truly philosophical fact, that the 
more a clergyman feeds his people with knowledge, 
the more they require of him. Sometimes, indeed, 
the people are like Pharaoh's tash masters ; they re- 
quire the full tale of brides, without furnishing straw. 
They require him to make great intellectual efforts 
every Sabbath, without allowing him either books to 
read, or time to study. After all due allowance is 
made for prosing sermons and quackery in the pul- 
pit, the clergy as a profession, are men of mind, of 
intelligence, and learning. The ablest constitutional 
lawyer of America has recently pronounced their 
eulogy in the celebrated Girard case, and professor 
Vethak has given them and the learned professions 
their proper place in the productive capital of the 
nation. Their lips keep knowledge ; works of cha- 

instructors of youth, are willing to make the sacrifices required 
of the successful teacher. Learned men of the secular professions 
generally prefer the pleasures of literature, or the pursuits of 
wealth or ambition. 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 195 

rity arc their robes of state ; mind is their empire ; 
the pen is their sceptre; eternal truth is their throne. 

The Gospel is not only the forerunner and ally 
of civilization, but its chief supporter. 

Without the House of God, we shall go back to 
the skins, and acorns, and idols of our ancestors. 
Some two thousand years ago our forefathers were 
painted savages, wandering on the shores of the Ger- 
man ocean, drinking their beer out of human skulls, 
and worshipping Wodin and Thor. And what 
makes the Anglo Saxon of the nineteenth century 
to differ from the ancient Briton ? The same that 
makes Christian nations differ from Heathen nations 
— that makes Tahiti loith the Gospel, to differ from 
Tahiti icithoiit the Gospel. Christianity poured its 
light into the minds of Alfred and Charlemagne, and 
thence the civilization of Europe. The Bible has 
incorporated itself into the laws, languages, institu- 
tions, and philosophy of Christendom. Arts and 
sciences, jurisprudence, commerce, and national po- 
litics, owe their present advanced state to the Bible. 
Hume has ascribed the civil liberty of England to 
the Puritans. Mcintosh says that the doctrine of 
Justification by Faith, the preaching of which by 
Luther produced the great reformation from Popery, 
lies at the foundation of all civil and religious lib- 
erty.* So emphatically is man's existence and hap- 
piness summed up jn his religion, that the history 
of the religions of various nations is the history of 
their manners, literature, government and philoso- 

* History of England, Henry VIII. ch. ix. " A principle which 
is the basis of all pure ethics, the cement of the eternal alliance 
between morality and religion/' &c. p. 218. 



196 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

phy. The philosophy of literature and of history is 
nothing more — can be nothing less — than the philo- 
sophy of the various systems of religious worship that 
have quickened and formed, or degraded and fettered 
the inhabitants of the world. 

Without the House of God — without the Sabbath 
and a regular living ministry of the Word of God, we 
shall go back to heathenism. We cannot stand still. 
Motion is the law of our nature. The amount of 
knowledge does not seem at any time to be greatly 
augmented. It changes places, and passes from one 
generation to another, but does not seem to be 
greatly increased. Its progress is rather that of a 
door on hinges, backwards and forwards, now in the 
East, now in the West, and anon to the East. Ter- 
ritories once republican are now sunk into the most 
degraded despotism. Territories once traversed by 
the feet of the blessed Saviour and his Apostles, have 
run back to heathenism, and why ? Because their 
Candlesticks, in the language of Holy Writ, their 
Churches, have been removed out of their places. 
When the sanctuary declines, all that pertains to the 
ennobling of man declines. Pull down all our houses 
of worship, and let the church going bell utter no 
more hints of salvation through the Cross, and there 
will follow a train of litigations, and bankruptcies, 
and imprisonments, and frauds, and divorces, and 
murders, that no human power- can control. A pal- 
pable darkness will come over the land, and gross 
darkness fall upon the people. Kefinement will be- 
come sensuality — low and vulgar vices, clownishness 
of manners, coarseness of attire, and depravity of 
mind and morals, will complete the history. Sepa- 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 197 

rate civilization from the Gospel, and it will degen- 
erate into heathenism. Separate institutions of 
learning and benevolence from the higher institutions 
of religion, and they will perish, sure as the frosts 
of autumn strip the forests of their foliage. Reli- 
gion, science, and benevolence, are inseparably con- 
nected with the sanctuary. 

II. The House of God increases the value of 
all useful property. This may be a novel propo- 
sition, but it does not follow that it is either fanciful 
or incapable of proof. It is a proposition sustained 
by the preceding, thus : civilization is necessary to 
give property its greatest value : the Gospel is the 
forerunner, pre-requisite, ally, and supporter of civil- 
ization : ergo, &c. The proposition is not only ca- 
pable of demonstration, but is sustained by numerous 
facts. Time allows, however, of reference to but a 
few. Men are so prone to think of religion not at 
all, or to think of it as a mere abstraction, a thing 
altogether spiritual, and as having to do altogether 
with the next world, that they forget its influence 
upon the present. They remember not the words 
of an Apostle who has told us that godliness with 
contentment is great gain, having the promise of the 
life that now is, and of that which is to come. Men, 
too, are so apt to regard what they give to the sup- 
port of religious institutions, as either thrown away 
or bestowed in charity, that they do not seem to con- 
sider for a moment that for the value of their pro- 
perty they are greatly indebted to the Bible. This, 
however, is a proposition so clearly established by 
facts, that the dullest apprehension must admit it 
when it is properly considered. Let any one ao 



108 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

quainted with the history of the Jews reflect, and 
see if property was not worth more when David and 
Solomon reigned in Jerusalem, than during the reign 
of the unprincipled Ahab. The reason is obvious 
enough. In the reign of David and Solomon, reli- 
gious institutions were honoured, and moral influ- 
ence restrained the depravity of men, so that their 
rights, persons, and property were held sacred. — 
While in the reign of Ahab, a false religion was sub- 
stituted for the true, and thus moral restraint was 
generally removed from the public mind. The vine- 
yard of Naboth was not worth half so much under 
Ahab, as when Solomon was on the throne of Israel. 
Ahab was a wicked, avaricious, and cruel prince; 
under his administration every thing was in confu- 
sion, uncertainty, and peril. Solomon feared God, 
and his reign was just, and good, and prosperous. 
What was the value of Lot's house in Sodom, though 
it was, perhaps, built of the most costly materials, 
decorated with all the art, and furnished with all the 
elegancies of his age, yet subject to the invasion of 
a most depraved and licentious community, com- 
pared with the humble tent of Abraham under the 
oak in the plains of Mamre. Lot's neighbours were 
not under the influence of religion. Abraham's peo- 
ple were. A sense of insecurity depreciates the value 
of property. Thus in the time of war, when our 
coasts are ravaged, our cities plundered, our houses 
burned, and our fields laid waste, real estate falls far 
below its intrinsic value. During the invasion of 
Louisiana in 1814-15, land and houses were worth 
scarcely a tithe of what they were after the treaty 
of peace. In France, during the Eeign of Terror, 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 109 

property sunk far below its ordinary value. And 
why was this ? Because during the reign of terror, 
there was no security afforded by the government to 
life and property. And there was no security to life 
and property, because all religious institutions had 
been annihilated, and infidelity, cruel and licentious, 
had been set up in their stead, and as a necessary 
consequence, religious restraints were taken from 
the minds of the people. Men fearing not God, re- 
yarded not their fellow men. Not being devoid to- 
wards God, they were not just and merciful towards 
their neighbours, nor did the public mind become 
settled, and property and life secure, till the re-estab- 
lishment of the forms of religion, and of law. Let a 
false religion be substituted among us for the true, 
let rampant and licentious infidelity prevail, let all 
the hallowed influences of the sanctuary be with- 
drawn from off the public mind, and how much 
would your houses and lands decline in value ! Take 
away all the restraints of our religious institutions, 
and what stability would remain ? Who would be 
willing to risk his life and property in a community 
void of all moral restraints? 

It is said that the intrinsic value of the soil 
of Turkey is greater than that of America; and 
yet the poorest acre of these United States is worth 
more than five of the richest land in Turkey. And 
why ? because here you are protected in your rights 
by a vigorous conscience in the body politic ; while 
in Turkey, you are constantly exposed to lawless 
rapacity, your property liable to be confiscated at 
any moment, and you yourself to perish by the hand 
of violence. Remove the House of God and its in- 



200 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

stitutions from the United States, and we shall be* 
come as ferocious as the Turk. It is admitted that 
the Mahommedan faith has destroyed the agricul- 
ture of Persia ; and Chardin thinks that if the Turks 
were to inhabit that country, it would soon be more 
impoverished than it is. Persia was once renowned 
for its fertility ; but even the temporal prosperity 

OF A NATION DEPENDS UPON THE PRINCIPLES OF ITS RE- 
LIGION.* 

It is a remarkable fact, that nowhere, except where 
Christianity prevails, do we find those partnerships 
in trade and commerce, so indispensable to give pro- 
perty its greatest value. Travellers and missionaries- 
inform us, that in pagan countries there are no asso- 
ciations for commerce and trade, for exchange, for 
banking, and for benevolent purposes. To use the 
language of another: "Why cannot heathens, as 
well as Christians, combine their wealth, so as to 
give it greater value, by giving it greater power of ac- 
cumulation ? It is because their religion, or rather the 
want of true religion, forbids the exercise of mutual 
onfidence, creating universal distrust, and making 
every man an iceberg to his neighbour. Hence the rea- 
son why their resources are crippled, and the public 
mind is stagnant. But let the Christian Pulpit be 
planted there, and the truth, as it is in Jesus, pervade 
the hearts and minds of the people, and the now dead 
mass would at once exhibit signs of life, and put on 
such an aspect of enterprise and prosperity as Heath- 
enism never saw, and can never produce." So true is 
diis connection, that a distinguished instructor was ac- 
customed to say to his pupils, " Give me the religion 
* Ancient History, Vol. III. p. 32. 



201 

of a country, and I will tell you all the rest ;" — the 
kind of religion chiefly determines the language, litera- 
ture and characteristics of the people — whether they 
are torpid or active — ignorant or enlightened — bond 
or free. An instance is cited in a discourse by the Rev. 
Mr. Clarke, of Stockbridge, Mass., which will illus- 
trate the point in hand. I give it in his own words : 
" In one of the towns in a neighbouring county, the 
people voluntarily deprived themselves of a preached 
Gospel for several years, till the difference between 
them and the adjoining towns, in want of thrift and 
prosperity, became proverbial, and till they them- 
selves were convinced, that, in forsaking the Pulpit, 
they had forsaken their own mercies. At length, 
they repaired their weather-beaten and almost ruined 
church, and settled a devoted minister of the Gos- 
pel, with an effect so marked on the enterprise of 
the people, that one of their most intelligent men 
remarked, but a few weeks since, that their farms 
had increased fifty per cent, in value, and that an 
entirely new aspect had been put on the dwellings, 
as well as on the spirit of the people."* 

The proposition is, that the House of God increas- 
es THE VALUE OF USEFUL PROPERTY. The proof is tllUS : 

First, security of life and property is necessary to give 
property its highest value : moral restraints are ne- 
cessary to give security to life and property : and 
moral restraints are produced and maintained only 
by the Gospel. And, secondly, it is in Christendom 
alone that trade and commerce are carried on with 
the enterprise of combined wealth and mutual confi- 
dence. Almost the only government known among 

* Clarke, in National Preacher. 



202 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

men without the Gospel is tyranny. The ability of 
heathen statesmen consists in knowing how to de- 
ceive others by hypocrisy, fraud, perfidy, and per- 
jury. Where the House of God is not, there is no 
bond of union between man and man. True hon- 
our, humanity, justice and commercial enterprise are 
promoted by the principles of the Bible. The Eng- 
lish government supports missions partly for the 
sake of extending her commerce. Even the vicinity 
of houses of Christian worship, in several well known 
instances in some of our largest cities, has greatly en- 
hanced the value of property — first, because of the 
convenience of being near the House of the Lord, 
and secondly, because a church-going people are good 
tenants, and thirdly, because the influence of the 
House of God changes the character of the popula- 
tion in its neighbourhood. Corrupt, licentious, pro- 
fane, Sabbath-breaking communities have become, 
through the preaching of the Gospel, decent, sober, 
intelligent, industrious, pious and well-to-do in the 
world. 

III. The House of God is not so expensive as 
the synagogues of Satan. This is a plain proposi- 
tion, and like the two preceding, it addresses itself 
to men's temporal interests. It is simply this : — 
That vice costs more than virtue. It costs more to 
support a drunkard than a sober man ; more to sus- 
tain the licentious than the chaste ; more to secure 
and convict a criminal than it would have cost to 
have prevented him from becoming a criminal by 
placing him under religious influence. Sabbath- 
breaking is an expensive vice. One Sabbath spent 
in idleness and dissipation — in neglecting the sane- 



203 

tuary, costs more than five days spent in the dis- 
charge of their appropriate duties. Which costs the 
most, to lounge at the corner of the streets, bet on 
elections, ride to the country, attend the military 
parade or the horse race on the Sabbath, drink at 
the Exchange, and then to the theatre at night, or 
to worship God in his Holy Temple ? Which costs 
the most, livery stable bills, Sunday dinners, oyster 
suppers, opera tickets, masquerade balls and coffee 
house indulgences, or attendance upon the sanctu- 
ary ? Which is best, to spend the Sabbath in idle- 
ness or in dissipation, and resume business Monday 
morning, with an empty purse, and languid spirits, 
and a heart aching under the remorse of conscience ? 
or to lay aside business affairs at a proper hour Satur- 
day evening, close the ledger and lock the desk, and 
shut the world up in the counting room, and relax 
the energies of the week in the social endearments 
of. the family — 

" The only bliss that has survived the fall ?" 

Rise early Sabbath morn, and begin the day with its 
appropriate duties, and then to the Sabbath school, 
to swim in the smiles and glad faces of earth's 
brightest similitudes of Heaven — little children — and 
then mingle with the people of God, who keep holy 
time, and send up the voice of supplication and the 
shout of praise to the Most High — and then melted, 
softened, awed, refined, better fitted for society and 
for social and civil duties, return home to the Sab- 
bath collation — and Monday, with health repaired, 
spirits refreshed, and the bright sunshine of the soul, 
a good conscience, which is a "continual feast," be- 



204 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

gin the labours of the week? I speak as unto wise 
men, judge ye. 

IV. The House of God wields the only power 

TO REFORM THE HEARTS AND LIVES OF MEN. Christi- 
anity is the only preventive of crime. We are aware 
that we live in an age of excitement and of bold ex- 
periments. The spirit of the day is restless, inno- 
vating. We have numberless forced systems of 
economy, of politics, of morals and of education. 
One cries, lo here ! another, lo there ! Each cries 
out, / have found it — / have found it, and a long 
line of Esqrs., Genls., D. D's, L. L. D's, and learned 
professors echo the lying sound. But, in a few days, 
like their predecessors, they in their turn give place 
to seven other ill favoured and lean kine, that "eat 
up the fat fleshed and well flavoured." And, like the 
flies in the fable, each succeeding swarm of quacks? 
strolling lecturers and reckless innovators, is more 
greedy than the first — more impudent and more ig- 
norant. But with all the nostrums which have in 
their turn been promulgated as certain specifics for 
all our civil and moral diseases — such as those effi- 
cacious Protean balsams, cordials, pills and sudorifics, 
which are infallible cures, (or if no cure, no pay,) for 
the hepatitis, consumption, fever, and gout, for old 
men, young men, maidens, and children — is it not 
true of us, as Pope said, turning from his doctor : 
"Alas! dear sir, I am dying every day of the most 
favourable symptoms." 

Our state pharmacopolists, each one like a scribe 
'well instructed, can tell why the currency was de- 
ranged, why commercial credit depreciated, and why 
the times are hard, and show the errors of all past 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 205 

administrations, and if the people would only put 
him and his party in power, he would turn the very 
stones into gold. On the one hand, some savans 
have asserted that nature has endowed all the tribes 
of the earth with precisely the same dispositions, 
and fitted them in their turn for the same sort of 
institutions, and that there is no reformation to be 
expected — no elevation to be hoped for. That all 
our inventions and discoveries in government and in 
science, are but the recovery of what we have lost — 
and that, in short, we are doomed to float about in 
eddies, and fly round in circles — but that there is no 
progress, no elevation, no redemption for our race. :I: 

Others teach that crime is owing entirely to the 
vagueness of accident — that vice and virtue are 
essentially nothing but the result of chance — the 
"rouge et noir" of life; and consequently, there is 
no redemption from the bondage of vice, but to wait 
the "fortunate concurrence of fortuitous atoms." 

Others say law is the sole cause of crime — that 
the very fact that there are laws, which are intended 
to debar men from crime, begets a disposition to vio- 
late them — that by the law is the knowledge of sin ; 
that is to say, because there are balustrades around 
the pit, to keep men from falling into it, men will 
plunge into it for the mere pleasure of getting over 
the obstructions put in their way for their good. 
"The danger's self is lure alone," and that, conse- 
quently, the only way to prevent crime is to annul 
all the existing laws of society, remove all restraints, 
reduce all to a common chaos, to a community of 
rights, and of ivives, and of goods. But the history 

* M. Fournier de Dcjon, author of the Phalansterian sect. 



206 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

of mankind abundantly proves that man is the crea- 
ture of laws ; that no society can exist without laws, 
not even a community of robbers, they must have a 
common bond of union — a code of rules. Laws are 
essential to our individual and social existence, and 
if we have no other, we must submit to the dominion 
of passion ; and then we should see again the bloody 
days of Caligula, and of Nero, and of Eobespierre. 

But again, others assert that all crime is the result 
of education, that men are vicious because they 
have been improperly instructed ; and that, there- 
fore, all that we have to do is to reform our system 
of education, for that education is competent to heal 
all our maladies, and to exhibit man 

" Full orb'd in his round of rays complete/' 

This system is called the Hylopathian, or the 
Anaximandrian, from its author, Anaximander, one 
of the earliest Greek Atheists. He taught that 
education is the creator of all things ; that all things, 
even life and understanding, are educated out of mat- 
ter, and are to be considered as nothing more than 
the passions and affections of matter ; that all life 
and understanding are the products of these qualified 
atoms, hot and cold, moist and dry. Anaxagoras 
taught, at a later period, the same system, with this 
exception : he held to an uncreated mind.* This 
system, in substance, has been frequently advanced, 
and has even now its warm advocates. But all 
these systems fail to give life to man's moral powers. 
They all fall short of reforming his heart and regu- 
lating his life. They do not give the true cause of 

* Cudworth's Int. Sys. Vol. I. p. 41. 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 207 

crime, and consequently they fail to afford any ade- 
quate remedy. They undertake to build without a 
foundation. They daub with untempered mortar. 
The spring-head of all crime is that black spot which 
the Arabs say is in every man's heart by nature, 
which is very little at first, but at last spreads all 
over him— original sin — corruption of nature — a 
heart deceitful above all things, and desperately 
wicked. And as is the heart, so also is the life. 
Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, 
murders and seditions. The heart is the fountain 
of influences. Out of it are the issues of life. The 
only effectual remedy for the disorders of society is 
to change the heart — to make the tree good, and 
then the fruit will be good. It can be proved most 
conclusively, but for the want of time the proof is 
here omitted, from the history of Prussia and France, 
that intelligence, mere education, does not prevent 
crime; "that knowledge is power" indeed, but that 
it may be power to do evil as well as good. The 
more intelligence, the more power to serve the pas- 
sions and the appetites. Knowledge awakens new 
desires and developes new and strong passions, and 
must then of necessity become the instrument of 
their gratification. 

The history of Italy in the dark ages proves this 
fact. Italy was then the centre of civilization, the 
only illumined spot on the globe, and Italy was then, 
also, the scene of the darkest crimes on the catalogue 
of the human race. The same may be truly said of 
England at this moment, The most enlightened 
and greatest nation under heaven ; yet, considering 
her moral and religious institutions, without a ques- 



208 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

tion the most haughty, ambitious, and wicked nation 
on earth. Education, as it is used, is a savour of 
life unto life, or of death unto death. The sources 
of power and pleasure, of dignity and wealth, may 
also become the sources of crime and vice, degra- 
dation and poverty. We practically acknowledge 
this when we make laws to keep our servants in 
ignorance, lest they should be wise to do evil. The 
stream of civilization too nearly resembles that 
mysterious river, whose waves both fold the croco- 
dile and carry the fertilizing loam to the same 
shore. Let an evangelical pulpit sanctify our lite- 
rature, and education will be the handmaid and sup- 
porter of morals. An appeal to criminal statistics — ■ 
to figures that cannot lie — shows most conclusively, 
that while mere science does not prevent crime, but 
rather increases misdemeanors and felons ; that, on 
the other hand, religious knowledge, education on 
Christian principles, literature sanctified by the pul- 
pit, does prevent crime. The experiment made by 
the Prussian Government — the history of Sabbath 
schools — the statistics of the United States and of 
Scotland, compared with England and Ireland, all 

show that RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE IS A PREVENTIVE OF 
CRIME. 

There is no country on the face of the earth so 
much affected by the facts here alluded to as our 
own. In our government the people are the sove- 
reign. They rule — they make our legislators and 
our rulers. Consequently, if we should have wise 
and virtuous statesmen, we must have wise and vir- 
tuous citizens. Let the Bible, through the pulpit, 
and the school-room, and the press, give tone to 



TV. A. SCOTT, D. D. 209 

public sentiment, and we shall not have legislators, 
and senators, and public functionaries, that can pro- 
fane the day and the name of God. Let public 
sentiment be purified and elevated, and our cities 
would be rid of those hundreds of high-ways to hell 
that are to be found along our streets, and at almost 
every corner. Let the influence of the pulpit be 
felt, and our land would have a Sabbath, and vice 
would be put to shame and confusion. The fearful 
responsibility of our national sins is to be resolved 
back upon the sovereign people. Why has not the 
United States, w T hy has not England, produced a 
Handel, a Haydn, a Weber, or a Beethoven ? Be- 
cause the public have little taste for music. Their 
ear is only for the sound of the hammer and the 
thundering of the steam engine ; while in Germany 
every man is a musician, and every family is an or- 
chestra. Why did England produce, in the seven- 
teenth century, her Walton, Castell, Usher, Selden, 
Lightfoot, and Pococke ? Then England was per- 
vaded with the spirit of biblical inquiry and theo- 
logical investigation. Why has France produced La 
Place, La Land, and La Grange ? France honours 
and rewards science. Her scholars are her peers. 
It is true that ever and anon a mighty spirit arises, 
who leads captivity captive — who inspires and leads 
the people ; such were Luther, Calvin, Knox, New- 
ton and others. They may be said to have created 
their own age — to have marked out their own era. 
Still, to some extent, even they were the embodyings 
forth of the people. The people gave the response 
when they called, or they had never been heard. 
Columbus, the bold and adventurous, was but the 

15 



210 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

crucible in which the traditions and the floating 
knowledge of the public, its hopes and conjectures, 
were reduced to a form, and breathed into action. 
Very much the same may be said of Dante, Ariosto, 
and Milton ; Bacon, Washington, and Napoleon. 

To a very great extent, public men are the mir- 
rors of the morals and knowledge of the great public, 
the omnific people. Why have we pettifoggers, quack 
doctors, and ignorant preachers? because the peo- 
ple not only tolerate, but patronize them. Tole- 
rated they should be, not patronized. Tolerated, be- 
cause we allow liberty of conscience, and declare 
life and the pursuit of happiness an inalienable 
right; but patronized they should not be, because 
thereby an evil is inflicted upon the body politic and 
moral, which no man has a right to do, do what he 
may with or to himself. And least of all, should 
an ignorant, unsound preacher, be countenanced. 
It is better to have ignorance at the bar, or in the 
senate, or in medicine, than in the pulpit. Let me 
lose my property through the negligence, or ignorance, 
or unshilfulness of my attorney ; let me he murdered 
by a quack, rather than that my soul perish, eternally 
perish, through the error, or ignorance, or unfaith- 
fulness of my spiritual guide. 

"If the people are industrious and virtuous, their 
representatives will be men of like spirit. But if 
ignorance, licentiousness, and a disregard of all reli- 
gious obligation prevail in the community, then 
reckless demagogues, and loud disunionists, and 
abandoned profligates, will sit in the sacred halls of 
legislation, and ambition, and self-aggrandizement, 
and love of power, will take the place of patriotism 



211 

and public spirit, and an unshaken attachment to 
the best interests of the nation. In such a state of 
society, the elective franchise, which is the peculiar 
glory of America, will become one of its deadliest 
scourges." 

In many other countries the government, by a 
standing army, by racks, dungeons and spies, and 
by disarming the people, preserves some kind of 
public order ; but here the people govern themselves, 
and keep the peace, and go through the most excit- 
ing elections without bloodshed and without a po- 
lice. And why ? Because the people of this coun- 
try are free, and are under the influence of the Bible. 
The power of the world to come has always exerted 
an extensive influence on the hearts of the people 
of this country. They fled from oppression to this 
wilderness with the Bible in their hand, for " free- 
dom to worship God," and they have made it blos- 
som as the garden of the Lord. The Huguenot and 
Pilgrim fathers brought the sanctuary to America, 
and hence its independence, and its prosperity, and 
its illimitable influence on the destinies of mankind. 

V. Public sextimext is mainly formed by the 
instructioxs of the House of God. — However great 
the influence of public sentiment may be upon the 
institutions of other countries, in our country it is 
greater. Our government is the people themselves. 
Every citizen is a part, it may be an humble part, 
but still a visible, a living and accountable part of 
the sovereignity of the nation. Divine Providence 
has bound us together by the ties of family, of coun- 
try, and of necessity. We are twined and inter- 
woven into the great web of our political institutions, 



212 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

like the threads of flax or the locks of wool in a piece 
of linen or cloth. The beauty and strength of Ame- 
rican institutions is, that the fine and the coarse 
threads are so wonderfully interwoven and twisted 
together, that it is impossible to part them without 
tearing the whole to pieces. One cannot distinguish 
between the threads of a piece of cloth, which are 
manufactured out of the wool of the lean, from those 
which are manufactured from the wool of the fat of 
the flock — no more can a distinction be made be- 
tween the rich and the poor, learned and ignorant 
citizen in the sovereignty of our country. The 
great principles of republican representation, and 
the pure sovereignty of the people, are the in- 
alienable, indivestible inheritance of every American. 
And what are the consequences ? The consequences 
are fearfully momentous : namely, that our govern- 
ment and institutions are what public sentiment is. 
The vices and the virtues of every one form an essen- 
tial part of our national character. The wickedness of 
one, the drunkenness of another; the atheism, infi- 
delity, or profligacy of a third ; the avarice, cruelty, 
and deceit of a fourth ; the malice, knavery, and 
idleness of a fifth ; the Sabbath breaking, neglect of 
family education, worship, and government of a 
sixth — all these make up the gross amount of our 
national character and guilt, just as a mountain is 
made up of sands, or as the great and mighty ocean 
is made up of drops of water. The purity of public 
sentiment is therefore the pillar of cloud by day and 
the pillar of fire by night, which alone can preserve the 
peace and glory of republican America. By this 
only SHALL SHE conquer. This is her heaven de- 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 213 

scended banner. The good order, the intelligence, 
and the religious influence of the family is the bul- 
wark and strong tower of our defence. Every in- 
stance of parental neglect, of ungoverned, disobedient, 
and wicked children, tends to draw down the curse 
of God upon our country. Every evil word, every 
blasphemous oath, every malicious thought, every 
violation of the holy Sabbath, every species of con- 
tempt to the Lord's house, and the institutions and 
ministers of the everlasting Gospel ; every sin, secret 
or public, against God, is a sin against our country, 
and is high treason against the State. And on the 
other hand, every virtuous feeling, every victory 
over our baser appetites, every benevolent aspiration, 
every tear of contrition, every groan of repentance, 
every sacrifice of our will and wishes to the supre- 
macy of law ; every holy act, every prayer of faith 
from the humblest cottage — every such act adds 
another stone to the spiritual rampart, which for so 
many years has surrounded and defended us. Righte- 
ousness exaltetli a nation, but sin is a reproach to any 
people. 

The conscience of the body politic, and the main- 
tenance of law, are but developments of public sen- 
timent. The best laws are perverted, misapplied, 
or neglected, when public opinion is against them. 
The statutes of departed wisdom, and the legacies 
of sainted worth, are no better than dead letters, 
when not in favour with the omnific public. 

But what law cannot do, public sentiment can. 
To the ungodly, public sentiment is law irresistible. 
The thief and the robber are bound by it. Sur- 
round them with purity of sentiment, and you make 



214 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

them honest ; first, because no man can habitually 
do what all about him disapprove. The most de- 
praved will be perfectly wretched, embosomed in a 
holy community. They would break from it as 
from a prison, and seek some mountain glade or 
wilderness cave, where they might associate with 
men of their own stamp. Man cannot live without 
the countenance and sympathy of his fellow man. 
And, secondly, because where public sentiment is 
correct, human laws will be executed. Let duelling 
be regarded by public opinion, as it is in fact, mur- 
der, and it will no longer be the mark of a gentle- 
man and the badge of honour. Let suicide be 
marked with the universal horror and disgrace of 
public feeling, and men will no longer take their 
own lives. Let Sabbath breaking, and drunkenness, 
and vices which are so depraved they may not be 
named, receive the detestation, and united and over- 
whelming frown of all who love morality and 
religion, and they will be abandoned. And for the 
formation of a correct public opinion, there is no 
means so powerful as the House of God. Its influ- 
ence operates not only upon those that attend the 
public preaching of the Word, moulding and sanc- 
tifying their principles, but it goes out into the 
crowd that never attend the sanctuary. For the 
men who hear the Gospel, bear out into society, 
and act out, in their deportment, its principles ; and 
others catch the moralizing influence, and spread it 
wider and still wider over the surface of the com- 
munity, till the whole mass is in some degree leav- 
ened. " Hence, that portion of society which stand 
aloof from the House of God, and perhaps gnash 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 215 

their teeth upon its holy solemnities, are blessed 
through its influence. It bears obliquely upon 
them ; but it is mighty, like no other law they 
listen to. It gives them indirectly all their civil 
privileges, the peaceable possession of their rights, 
security of life, and exemption from midnight de- 
predations, and from hourly oppressions. It sets a 
watch about them and places a guard over their 
goods and persons at the expense of others;"* a 
watch and guard, which they should be ashamed to 
let their fellow citizens sustain alone, but without 
which society would be a den of thieves. 

VI. The House of God furnishes the only true 
standard of morals.- — Without a rule it is not known 
what is straight or what is crooked. Without some 
standard of excellence, from which there can be no 
appeal, it is not known what is right or what is 
wrong. The Bible is the only rule of life by which 
to form our creed, and regulate our private and pub- 
lic actions. Conscience, although it is not, as Mcln 
tosh asserts, "a human generation," is, neverthe- 
less, very much the creature of education. Set up 
conscience as the infallible standard, and then it will 
be right to worship the Grand Lama — to immolate 
widows upon the funeral piles of their husbands, 
and to murder our children and our parents. Con- 
science may be educated to tolerate any thing. It 
may be reared so as to approve of the most monstrous 
and cruel rites of Paganism. 

Public opinion, though worthy of consideration, is 
not a safe standard. It is wayward and blind, fickle 
and feeble. 

* Tract No. 223 of the American Tract Society, p. 6. 



216 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

The laws of the land are also defective. There 
are many virtues which they cannot enforce : such 
as gratitude, fidelity in friendship, charity, proper 
education of children, and the duties of piety, love 
to God supremely, and to our neighbour as ourselves. 
There are, on the other hand, many vices and crimes 
which the laws of the land and the magistrates can- 
not prevent; such as luxury, wasting, disrespect to 
parents, partiality in voting, betting on elections, se- 
cret fraud and peculation, and the such like. And 
besides, the laws of the land and the civil magis- 
trates never reach the heart. They cannot ferret 
out the motives and secret purposes of the soul, nor 
can they change and purify the heart. And what 
is still more, how often are statutes dead letters ? 
The laws are perverted, misapplied, or neglected. 
Either from ignorance or fear, negligence or parti- 
ality, the guilty escape, and the innocent are op- 
pressed. 

If, then, it is desirable that men should live by 
Gospel precepts, that they should love their country 
— -fear God and honour the magistrate; that they 
should be fervent in spirit, diligent in business, serv- 
ing the Lord — upright in all their dealings with their 
fellow men, and faithful in all their duties, let them 
be brought under the influence of an able, evangeli- 
cal pulpit. 

VII. The House of God is the only preventive 

FROM A FALSE RELIGION — THE BlBLE IS THE ONLY AN- 
TIDOTE of Polytheism. — Whenever the Jews left off 
the worship of Jehovah, they bowed down to 
idols. Men may and do change their forms of re 
ligion, but they cannot abandon all religions. To 



I 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 217 

what extent some individuals may have succeeded 
in eradicating religious truth from their minds, it is 
not for us to determine; but all history, and our 
own observation, teaches that no nation can exist 
without some kind of religion. A nation of Athe- 
ists is no where to be found ; nor can man exist with- 
out some religious sentiments, as long as he is in pos- 
session of his present faculties, intellectual and moral. 
Some kind of religion is as indispensable in order to 
meet the demands of his intellectual and moral na- 
ture, as food is to satisfy the cravings of his appe- 
tite. A man without some religious sentiments is 
just as much deformed and mutilated in his moral 
nature, as his physical would be without a limb or 
an eye, or as his intellect w r ould be without the power 
of reason. The question, then, is not whether we 
shall have no religion at all, but whether we have a true 
or a false religion ; whether we will have Maliomme- 
danism, or Judaism, Paganism or Christianity; Mor- 
monism or any other fanaticism, or the religion which 
is pure and undefiled in the sight of God the Father. 
The religion of the Gospel is not only true and 
excellent, but it is recommended by its economy. 
Some system of religion we will have. It is infi- 
nitely important, then, that we should have the best. 
Here we must take it for granted, that you believe 
the religion of the Bible, which is the religion of 
Protestants, and is the religion of this great nation, 
to be the most excellent system known upon earth. 
The religion of the Bible is also the cheapest reli- 
gion. Every religion has its priests and altars ; Pa- 
ganism has its thousands of altars and its array of 
priests to attend on every altar, and its thousand. 



218 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

thousand victims. The appeal is made to your in 
telligence, to your knowledge of false religions from 
history and travellers, to show that they are more 
expensive than the true. Your reading will also 
remind you of the evils and expenses of religious 
establishments supported by the State. Time for- 
bids to notice the struggles of the people of Europe 
under the patronage law and oppressive tithes, col- 
lected at the point of the bayonet, to support a do- 
tard hierarchy, overgrown, corrupt and tyrannical. 
These are things which we know by the hearing of 
the ear, and they make our ears to tingle, but they 
are not parts or parcels of our own glorious history. 
The people of the United States are not, and never can 
he, a tax-ridden people, because they are not, and by 
the power of truth and the ever-living God, they never 
shall he a king or priest-ridden people. 

But think you, beloved hearers, if one should 
sweep, as with the besom of destruction, all Christian 
temples from our land, that we should not have to 
erect infidel or heathen ones in their stead ; think 
you that if you do not support the American Pro- 
testant evangelical pulpit, that you will escape from 
all pecupiary contributions to religious institutions ? 
By no means. 

9 Where'er ye shed the honey, the buzzing flies will crowd; 
Where'er ye fling the carrion, the raven's croak is loud ; 
Where'er down Tiber garbage floats, the greedy pike ye see" — 

Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the birds of 
prey he gathered together. 

Silence the Protestant pulpits of America, and the 
vultures of a corrupt hierarchy would fatten on the 
wealth of the land. Look at Mexico, with all the 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 219 

wealth of nature ; poor and ignorant, torn and dis- 
tracted, wretched indeed — because it has long, even 
from the beginning, been subject to a wicked, ava- 
ricious, blood thirsty priesthood. The same may be 
said of South America ; blest with every climate and 
every product, from tropical fruits and birds " on 
starry wings," to the gold and diamonds of Brazil, 
and the plumage and furs of colder skies. Let the 
Anglo Saxon Protestant go to Mexico and South 
America, and introduce his laws, language and reli- 
gion, and they will become as the garden of the 
Lord. 

Look at France sixty years ago. Popery, the 
established religion, with 400,000 ecclesiastics to 
clothe and feed, who were princes of luxury, rolling 
in every species of sumptuous living and high de- 
bauchery, consuming the labours of the people — and 
at Spain, superstitious, bloody, unhappy Spain, with 
180,000 priests, and you may form some idea of 
what it would cost to support Popery. The religion 
of the Bible is not only the true religion, but it 
is the cheapest. It demands fewer ministers, and a 
simpler dress ; requiring a far less expensive appa- 
ratus for worship ; neither robes, nor sceptres, nor 
mitres, nor crucifixes, nor gorgeous altars, nor pomp 
and splendid ceremonial; but a broken heart, a 
broken and a contrite spirit ; a simple, pure formula, 
the word of God, and a ministry evangelical, of pure 
hearts and clean hands. This is the religion of Jesus 
Christ 

VIII. The House of God is the depository of 
truth. — The pulpit is the expositor and interpreter 
of the Bible, which is truth itself. If the Bible were 



220 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

but the ruins of ancient learning; the fragments of 
remote annals, it would be a venerable document : 
were it a fiction only, it would be a grand one ; then 
how much more interesting and valuable as it is 
truth, ancient, eternal truth — truth that is indisso- 
lubly connected with our very existence and well- 
being here and hereafter. 

There is in the human mind a native love for 
truth. It is agreeable to our natural constitution, 
or, as Lord Shaftsbury has somewhere expressed it, 
" Truth is so congenial to our minds that we love 
the very shadow of it." Hence, truth is much easier 
than falsehood, and hypocrisy itself is but the hom- 
age of vice to virtue. And, on the same principle, 
Horace, in his rules for the construction of an epic 
poem, advises that "fictions in poetry should re- 
semble truth." Then, as the Bible is the word of 
God, and the pulpit is its authorized interpreter, 
how necessary is the pulpit to our present and eter- 
nal well-being. As the eye was formed for light, 
and the ear for sound, so the mind is constituted for 
the reception and enjoyment of truth. As the limbs 
of youth resist confinement, so the mind abhors 
darkness. The eyes of the soul are formed to gaze 
on the light of truth, and to revel in its ever new and 
yet unchanging beauties. Must not the heart be 
educated as well as the head ? and what but the en- 
lightening, saving and purifying truth of the Bible 
as the Holy Ghost presents it, can form man's heart 
to holiness ? Is it not the pulpit that explains, de- 
fends and brings home to the conscience and the 
heart, the truths of Revelation ? Is it not from ths 
pulpit religious instruction is to be chiefly sought ? 



221 

Then, if school houses, universities and state houses 
are worth the expense of their erection, Jiow much 
more are temples to the living God ? 

The House of God ever has been, and ever must 
be, the grand receptacle of light from heaven, 
whence it issues to restrain the passions and mould 
the manners of men, and repair the ruins of the 
apostacy. Where the House of God is not erected, 
false religions eat up the people like a pestilence. 
Falsehood, fraud and theft, and rapine and murder 
so prevail, that no man sees another in whom he 
places confidence. Domestic happiness and conjugal 
fidelity, and parental and filial regard, are things 
unknown, and for which many heathen languages 
have not even a name. And every where, where 
the Gospel is not, there prevails a government that 
rules with a sceptre of iron. The hardest despotism 
is rendered necessary by the absence of moral re- 
straint. The Church is both the light and salt of 
the earth. It was the blessed Saviour's prayer for 
the heirs of salvation : " Sanctify them through thy 
truth." It is by the truth we are to be saved. And 
it is ordinarily by the truth from the lips of a living 
ministry, waiting on the courts of the Lord's House, 
that men are convicted of sin, and converted to God. 
"By the foolishness of preaching it pleases God to 
save them that believe." The subjects of divine 
grace are taken usually from those that are in the 
habit of attending Church, and hearing the truth 
preached from Sabbath to Sabbath. In revivals of 
religion, those families are generally the most blest 
who are Church-going families. And far the greatest 
proportion of youth who unite with the Church are 



222 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

such as have been baptised in infancy. The Lord 
is faithful in all his promises. "His mercy is from 
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, 
and his righteousness unto children's children, to 
such as keep his covenant, and to those that remem- 
ber his commandments to do them." Prostrate the 
sanctuary, and we shall have neither creed, nor 
covenant, nor communion, nor revival, nor liberty 
of conscience, nor toleration of opinion, nor Bible in 
our houses nor in our schools, nor the voice of sup- 
plication and praise ; and our children would soon 
be without God, and without Christ, and without 
hope in the world. 

Finally. — The House of God is the fountain 

OF LIGHT, LIFE, AND JOY TO THE WORLD. It is the 

altar of prayer. It is the presence chamber of the 
Great King, "whose sceptre pardon gives." It is 
there His honour dwells, and there he hath recorded 
his name — A God that heareth prayer. Better 
give up every other privilege than to have no share 
in the prayers of God's people. " I would," says 
one, " be without the means of self-defence, without 
the protection of law, and without a shelter for my 
head at night, but should not dare to cut myself off 
from an interest in the prayers of the sanctuary. 
Let no shower or dew fall on my field, or breezes fan 
my habitation, or genial sun warm me ; but let me 
not be excluded from the health beaming influence 
of the House of Prayer. I would do without a 
roof to cover my head, and have my lodging in the 
clefts of the rock ; but I must go to the House of 
the Lord, and fix my dying grasp upon the horns 
of his altar." It is in the House of God that law 



W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 223 

and conscience speak out ; that a future state of ex- 
istence, and a day of judgment and final retribution 
are held up before the intellectual vision ; that life 
and immortality are brought to light; that the 
Gospel of the free grace of the ever blessed God is 
preached, glad tidings of great joy to all people, 
peace on earth, and good will to men. The House 
of God instructs our ignorance, enlightens our un- 
derstandings, corrects our judgments, renews our 
wills, and reforms our lives. It imparts knowledge 
to the poor, it gives the orphan a parent, the stran- 
ger a friend, the sailor a brother, the prisoner a 
companion, and the young man from home a guide. 
The Lord of the Sabbath and the God of the sanc- 
tuary hath said : " Come unto me all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In 
the House of God we learn how to live usefully 
and happily, and how to die gloriously. Here, 
parents and children a husbands and wives, masters 
and servants, magistrates and people, are taught 
their duties, and to enjoy their privileges. Here 
they are taught how to live so as to gain everlasting 
life in glory ; how to live that they may meet again, 
after death, in the heavenly world, where there is 
no more sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, nor sin, nor 
separation, nor death. The House of God enlight- 
ens, soothes, comforts, cheers, elevates, sanctifies, 
and saves. It imparts salvation to the sin sick soul, 
and seals it with pardon an heir of grace. It 
hushes into a calm the tempest raised in the bosom 
by conscious guilt, for it proclaims there is balm in 

GlLEAD, THERE IS A PHYSICIAN THERE THERE IS FOR- 
GIVENESS WITH GOD THAT HE MAY BE FEARED. THE 



224 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

BLOOD OF HIS SON CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN. It 

melts the most obdurate into tenderness and con- 
trition. It cheers the broken hearted, and brings 
the tear of gladness into eyes swollen with grief. 
It maintains serenity under calamities that drive 
the worldling mad. It reconciles the sufferer to his 
cross, and raises songs of praise from lips quivering 
with agony. It teaches the fading eye to brighten 
at the sweet promises of Jesus, and brings a fore- 
taste of heaven down to the " chamber where the 
good man meets his fate." 

" Jesus can make a dying bed 
Feel soft as downy pillows are." 

Blessed is the people that know the joyful 
sound : they shall walk, lord, in the light of 
thy countenance. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. 
Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen and 

AilBN. 



PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

BT 

J. C. LORD, D. D. 

PASTOR OP THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BUFFALO, N. T. 



"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have 
grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and 
godly fear. — Heb. xii. 28. 

What kingdom is this which cannot be moved ? 
What kingdom is that which has not been moved, and 
shall not be for ever ? Where is the law of absolute 
permanency manifested ? Where are the everlasting 
foundations that never shall be shaken ? Shall we 
turn to the kingdom of nature for an example, ex- 
pecting to find unchangeableness there ? Upon a 
careful examination, a state of facts will be discerned 
at war with the commonly received opinions of the 
permanency and fixedness of the course of nature. 
If we go back a few centuries in our investi- 
gations, we find that extraordinary interruptions 
and changes have marked the history of this king- 
dom, since God created the heavens and the earth, 
the proofs of which are graven in the rocks by the 
finger of the great Architect; the memorials of which 

16 (225) 



226 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

are as numerous as the heights of the earth, and the 
depths of the sea. Our globe has been shaken by 
convulsions, which have overwhelmed existing or* 
ders of life ; which have thrust the mountains sky- 
ward, and hollowed out the profound depths where 
are gathered the waters of the ocean. The chaotic 
state which preceded the present order of things, 
when the earth was without form and void, has left 
every where visible and indubitable marks of its 
existence. The ancient forms of life have passed 
awaj^, and new ones have been created to supply 
their places. The economy of existence, in this 
world, has been changed more than once ; and the 
present order of things reposes on the wrecks of pre- 
existent and extinguished forms of life. The ruins 
of primitive forests, of a diverse order or species 
from those which now exist, constitute the beds of 
toal from which we draw inexhaustible supplies 
of fuel. The metals we use were melted in furna- 
ces in the interior of the earth, and injected in veins 
through the masses of igneous rocks, broken by a 
power which shattered the crust, of the globe, and 
upheaved the mountains, whose scattered debris 
constitute the soils which now produce the precious 
fruits of the earth. The attrition and decompo- 
sition of substances forced out of the bosom of the 
planet, and distributed by the alternate action of 
cold and heat, by the agency of fire, air, and water, 
constitutes the basis of all vegetable production, and 
the support of the present kingdom of life. The 
roots of the present economy draw their sustenance 
from the graves of its predecessors. We build not 
only upon, but with the tombs of extinct orders of 



227 

life ; more than this, the regularity and uniformity 
of the present order of things is the result of a pre- 
vious designed irregularity and disorder, which pre- 
pared the globe for the support of its present inhab- 
itants. Mountains and valleys are the ridges of 
ancient volcanoes, which drove the plowshare of ap- 
parent ruin through the crust of the earth, only to 
prepare the way for man, and the orders of life with 
which it pleased God to surround him. The ancient 
vegetable kingdom was buried as a deposit for his 
use ; before this, in the era of fire which preceded 
all forms of life, the metals were fabricated, and 
then deposited, or rather driven, near the surface by 
volcanic action, for the same wise and benevolent 
purpose. All the primitive systems have passed 
away, having performed their office by furnishing 
the means of support to that which was to succeed 
them. 

The scriptural chronology commences with the 
creation of man, after a brief intimation of a pre- 
existing amorphous condition of the earth ; and it is 
cod ceded that geological phenomena do not indicate 
a longer time than six thousand years for the pre- 
sent order or kingdom of life. The Bible no where 
limits the length of that period during which the 
planet was in an imperfect and forming condition ; 
nor are we told how long the Spirit of God was mov- 
ing upon the face of the waters, preparatory to the 
last six day's work of creation. But without dwel- 
ling further on this interesting theme, may we not 
presume that enough has been said to show that the 
kingdom of nature has none of the permanency 
spoken of in the text? It has been revolutionized; 



228 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

it has been shifted from foundation to foundation ; 
it has been moved from its earlier conditions ; it has 
been without all life under the dominion of fire ; it 
was inhabited for a time only by the inferior forms 
of existence, which sport in the waters, or by gigantic 
lizards, which haunted the marshes among ferns sixty 
feet high; it has experienced numerous interrup- 
tions destructive of the earlier organisms, which have 
been succeeded by new acts and new forms of creation. 

The present economy under which we live is con- 
tinued now by no necessity of nature, and abides in 
an orderly way, only because God "upholdeth all 
things" by the same word of power by which he called 
order and form, and life and light, out of darkness 
and death, out of emptiness and nothingness. It is 
the sure word of promise that perpetuates the king- 
dom of nature during the appointed time, for God 
said to Noah, when he came out of the ark, " While 
the earth remaineth summer and winter, seed time 
and harvest, cold and heat, and day and night shall 
not cease." 

But as this kingdom of nature has been moved by 
the concurrent testimony of science and religion, so 
there is the same evidence that it is destined to new 
revolutions and changes. The promise to Noah im- 
plies the end of the present economy ; u while the 
earth remaineth," that is, during the appointed period 
of its present state, " seed time and harvest shall not 
fail." 

The apostle Peter, in his second epistle, declares 
that "the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, the elements melt with fervent heat; the earth 
also, and the works that are therein shall be 



J. C. LORD, D. D. 229 

burlled. ,, He announces that ff all these things shall 
he dissolved;" " nevertheless/' continues the apostle, 
u we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
It appears to be the meaning of the inspired writer, 
that the present economy, its order, its laws, its at- 
mosphere, its forms of matter, and life shall be dis- 
solved ; not annihilated, but reduced by fire to the 
same rudiments out of which God before educed the 
first creations.^ " We look," he says, "for a new hea- 
vens and a new earth," implying, we think, a new 
and higher organism, to be fashioned out of the old 
materials, because he adds, "wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness." How strikingly analagous is this declara- 
tion of the final consummation of the divine plan, 
in the new heavens and the new earth, with the phy- 
sical history of the planet, at first a^ globe of fire, 
upon which was superinduced, at length, an inferior 
economy of life, followed by new kingdoms, advanc- 
ing in importance, increasing in beauty and glory, 
until man appears made in the image of God. But 
this condition, impaired by the apostacy and defaced 
by sin, must give way at length to a "new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
That the globe has once been a mass of fire, proves 
that it may again become so ; and as God has super- 
induced new and more perfect creations upon the 
destruction of the older organisms, have we not here 
a confirmation of the divine word, which promises 
a new heavens and a new earth at last, perfect in 
righteousness — an immovable kingdom? 

But there is proof in the present arrangement of 
our globe, that the kingdom of life that now subsists 



230 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

upon it must be dissolved. Is it not manifest that 
our economy is to wax old, and at last vanish away, 
or be changed into what the apostle calls a new hea- 
vens and a new earth ? Consider, for a moment, what 
renders the world habitable. Are not the moun- 
tains and the valleys of our planet, its rivers and 
seas, essential to the healthy condition of its atmos- 
phere, no less than to the productiveness of its soil, 
and its eligibility, in numerous respects, as an abode of 
man, and the circle of life of which he is the head? 
Now, it is philosophically and strictly true, that a 
time must come, however remote the period, when 
the earth, by the operation of known laws, will cease 
to be a suitable habitation for our race. The newly 
cut and sharply defined caverns of the ocean, made 
by the convulsions which preceded the existing econ- 
omy, are slowly filling up, and must in time cease 
to fulfill their office. A single river, like the Gan- 
ges or the Mississippi, would, in a period which can 
be ascertained and stated in figures, discharge a conti- 
nent into the sea. Every mountain on the globe, by 
an observable process, must in time be precipitated, 
until at last a dreary and stagnant level, exposed ta 
the incursions of the sea, would characterise all its 
continents and islands. The earth grows old, like 
a decaying edifice, and by the operation of known 
physical causes must at length become uninhabita- 
ble — a worn out and broken dwelling, requiring the 
return of another chaos, a new fracture of its flat- 
tened crust, new convulsions destructive of all life, 
to heave up new mountains and hollow out fresh 
cavities, and then a new creation to people the new 
world. So then the kingdom of nature is not the 



J. C. LORD, D. D. 231 

kingdom spoken of in the text, which cannot be 
moved, for this kingdom has been moved, and shall 
again be ; which is taught also by these words of the 
apostle in the context, "whose voice then shook the 
earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once 
more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven ; 
and the words once more signifieth the removing of 
those things that are shaken as of things that are 
made, that those things which cannot be shaken may 
remain ; wherefore we, receiving a kingdom that 
cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may 
serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." 

The apostle here contrasts the visible things of 
the Hebrew economy, and with them all temporal 
and material forms which are to be shaken, with a 
kingdom which, he informs us, cannot be moved. 

Where, then, are we to look for this kingdom ? Is 
it among the kingdoms of the world ? Let history 
answer ; let us listen to the voices from the sepul- 
chres of empires ; let us mark the wrecks of king- 
doms that lie scattered on the shores of time. Where 
are the first, and perhaps the grandest of monarchies 
among men, of the days of the giants of old, men of 
renown, who filled the earth with violence ? Where 
are the antediluvian kingdoms, to which the first 
sixteen centuries gave birth, when men lived a 
thousand years, and had time to perfect their know- 
ledge, to complete their plans, to make durable their 
monuments, and, if it were possible with temporal 
things, to lay immovable foundations? They are 
utterly finished, their memorials have perished from 
among men ; all record of them is lost, save only 
the brief narration in Genesis of their guilt and their 



232 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

doom. The last great catastrophe in nature was 
ordained for their judgment, for God saw that the 
earth was filled with violence, and that all flesh had 
corrupted his way,, and opened the windows of hea- 
ven, and broke up the foundations of the great deep, 
and swept away the debased populations who had 
filled the earth with blood and the heavens with in- 
dignation. The sea roars over the broken monu- 
ments of the antediluvian kingdoms which perished 
beneath its waves. Over the chasm of forty centu- 
ries the wail of the primative generations comes echo- 
ing upon our ears like the noise of many waters. 
" He uttered his voice, the kingdoms were moved, 
the earth trembled; thou coverest with the deep as 
with a garment ; the waters rose above the moun- 
tains, at thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy 
thunder they hasted away." 

Was there no kingdom that survived that general 
doom? Mark you yon vessel upon that wild waste 
of waters, that fathomless and shoreless sea, the 
sport of storms that sweep from the equator to the 
poles ? Keeps she, amid the terrors of the deluge, 
such a charge ? Bears she a kingdom there, pre- 
served out of the universal destruction, and which 
shall never be moved ? If so, no wave shall break 
her bulwarks ; no yawning grave of billows shall 
enclose her priceless freight. Who sails with her 
shall come to land, though naught but a howling 
sea, and a leaden sky are now visible ; though every 
element of destruction rage around her battered hull, 
like roaring lions, greedy for their prey. 

Where is that post diluvian kingdom, whose seat of 
power was in the plain of Shinar, through which flows 



233 



the ancient river Euphrates, once bearing upon its 
bosom the commerce of nations, the wealth of the 
world ? Where is that capitol city that styled her- 
self the Lady of Nations, the Queen of Kingdoms, 
to whom a hundred and twenty provinces, compre- 
hending all languages and tongues, sent tribute, and 
before whom, as to a divinity, they rendered homage ? 
Where is that gorgeous Babylon, whose golden tow- 
ers shone ever in that cloudless climate, reflecting 
the sun by day, and the stars by night ? Where is that 
glory of the Chaldean's excellency, whose circuit, for 
a swift rider, was the journey of a day; upon whose 
walls, higher than the commemoration columns of 
modern times, three chariots could drive abreast, 
fearless of the dizzy height, and sheer descent on 
either hand ? Alas ! there is no response. Babylon 
gives no sign, though the neighbouring Nineveh is 
rendering up her sculptured forms, her glorious spe- 
cimens of art, concealed for centuries, to the curious 
eyes of a generation, wise in its own conceit, but 
who from the Assyrian tombs might learn humility, 
if this were possible. But no man knows the pre- 
cise site of Babylon ; the Euphrates, which treach- 
erously admitted Cyrus within its walls, spreads out 
her channel to conceal her crime, enwrapping in one 
dark morass the first and most magnificent of all 
the capitols of the world ; and thus the royal word 
of prophecy, uttered before the glory of Chaldea had 
begun to diminish, is fulfilled; "And Babylon, the 
glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldean's ex- 
cellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom 
and Gomorrah ; it shall never be inhabited, neither 
shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation : 



234 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither 
shall the shepherds make their fold there ; but wild 
beasts of the desert shall be there. And their houses 
shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell 
there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild 
beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, 
and dragons in their pleasant palaces, and her time 
is near to come, and her days shall not be pro- 
longed." The kingdom was removed from Babylon 
with a destruction like that which overtook the 
cities of the plain, where the sluggish waters of the 
Dead Sea mark the place and the manner of the 
divine judgment. The site of the one is a noxious 
marsh, of the other a putrid sea, whose barren shores 
are watered by no dews from heaven, The wild 
Arab, himself the child of prophecy, avoids both as 
spots accursed of God, and pitches his tent neither 
by the sea of death, nor the marsh of the Euphrates, 
filled with doleful creatures. 

What kingdoms of this world have not been 
moved, what political foundations have not been de- 
stroyed ? The fate of Babylon and Borne, the first 
and last of the universal monarchies is the history 
of all the empires and kingdoms of this world. It 
is true a shrunken spectre yet haunts the banks of 
the Tiber with "the horns of a lamb but the voice 
of a dragon," claiming ghostly dominion over men, 
pretending to be the head of a kingdom that shall 
not be moved, exalting himself to the throne of God, 
nay, above all that is called God or worshipped, 
wearing upon his triple crown the words of blas- 
phemy, changing times and laws, forbidding to 
marry, and commanding to abstain from meats ; but 



235 

he is a king of death among the dead, a ghoul amid 
the tombs, a galvanized corpse mimicking life in a 
sepulchre, a starving vampire amid the skeletons of 
nations, a throned shadow aping the old despotism 
that once set its heel upon kings. The scarlet 
mantled harlot of prophecy, drunk with the blood 
of saints, sits still upon the seven hills, with the pro- 
phetical name upon her forehead, seen in vision by 
the apostle John, "Mystery, Babylon the great;" 
but her strength is broken, the shuddering nations 
will no more drink from the golden cup of her abo- 
minations ; she waits the day of her predicted doom. 
Rome is a city of dead men's bones, a tomb of giants 
haunted by pigmies. The kingdom spoken of in the 
text is not there; the spiritual tyranny that is en- 
throned in the place of God in the western church 
had its beginning and will have its end ; it is an 
antichristian usurpation, whose days are numbered 
by the sure word of prophecy; the Pontiffs are des- 
tined to the same doom as the Caesars. The fate of 
the empire will overtake the remorseless despotism 
which has ever imitated the splendour of Pagan 
Rome, and fashioned itself after the model of its 
government, and baptised its heathenish ritual with 
Christian names ; which has travestied the example 
of the Lycaonians, who called Paul Jupiter and Bar- 
nabas Mercurius, by worshipping Jupiter under the 
name of Peter, and the demi-gods under the appel- 
lation of saints. 

The souls of the martyrs, whose blood the Papacy 
has shed for the word of God and the testimony of 
Jesus, does still cry out from under the altar, saying, 
"How long, Lord, holy and true dost thou not 



236 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell in 
the earth ?" and voices in heaven and earth respond, 
" Their judgment now of a long time lingereth not." 
Where is the kingdom among men that has not 
been moved, from the golden head seen in Daniel's 
vision of the four great monarchies, to the feet of 
iron and clay ? Have they not all been broken with- 
out hand and perished for ever ? Are not the solemn 
words "passing away" engraven on all the monu- 
ments of modern civilization, on all the glory of the 
existing nations ? What flaming portents of change 
and revolution come flashing across the Atlantic, 
visible in the new world ; what rumors of oppres- 
sion, usurpation and war are wafted on the winds; 
what wailing of the down trodden populations of 
Europe sweeps sighing over the ocean ! Have they 
not found, from an exile on our own shores, a voice 
of surpassing eloquence, penetrating all hearts, filling 
all eyes with tears of compassion and sympathy? 
Like the restless waves the kingdoms of our own 
day are moved ; they stagger to and fro like drunken 
men ; they heave like the earth, which treasures in 
its bosom the fires of the volcano ; as Samson, bound 
to the pillars of Dagon's house, shook its foundations 
in his death agony, so the populations of the world 
are writhing in their chains and shaking the eccle- 
siastical and political despotisms which crush them. 
Those scenes which were witnessed a few years 
since in Europe seem about to be repeated ; 

Wben Death was riding grimly forth with Terror by his side, 
And blood stained war and pestilence, and famine hollow eyed. 

And while the kingdoms of the old world are 
moved, is there no danger for us ? Shall we pre- 



J. C. LORD, D. D. 237 

sume upon our precocious infancy, upon our gigantic 
and vigorous youth, in our wide territory and ra- 
pidly advancing population, in our free institutions 
and glorious union of States? Is there not danger 
that we may forget our exposedness to this universal 
law of change? Have not clouds already arisen 
upon our horizon, which, though no bigger than a 
man's hand, have threatened the dissolution of the 
Republic, and darkened the hopes of political and 
religious liberty over the world ? Have we not seen 
enough to teach us the mutability of national great- 
ness, and to lead us to implore the Founder and 
Ruler of nations to preserve that which he has 
established, to save us from evil counsels, from ruin- 
ous divisions, that we may not perish as a people in 
our childhood, but may at least pass through the 
period ordinarily allotted to great empires, and that 
we may not madly hasten and anticipate that de- 
cline and decay which sooner or later fall upon the 
most fortunate kingdoms of this world ? 

But you have already anticipated the direct an- 
swer to the question, " where is this law of perma- 
nence? where is the unchangeable foundation of 
which the apostle speaks in the text ? You know 
it is the kingdom of God, the church purchased by 
the blood of Christ, the people assured to him in the 
counsels of the eternal Trinity, and by the covenant 
of redemption. But a question still remains. Where 
is the attribute of permanency manifested ? In what 
does this unchangeableness consist ? There are va- 
rious aspects under which the kingdom of Christ may 
be considered. In which does the declaration of the 
apostle find its verification ? Let us briefly reply. 



238 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

In order intelligibly to decide this inquiry, we 
must look for those things in the kingdom of Christ 
which exhibit the unity of the church ; which have 
been the same in all generations, and which must 
continue the same to the end. 

It will not be denied, by any called Christians, 
that this immovable kingdom has existed from the 
beginning; that the Church was founded in the 
family of Adam, and had its fundamental doctrine 
in the word which God uttered in the ears of our 
apostate progenitors, as they were driven forth from 
Eden, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the 
serpent's head ;" that it had its first sacrament in the 
lamb offered by Abel as an expiation, symbolising 
the lamb of God slain in the divine purpose before 
the foundation of the world. What the external 
order of worship was in the antediluvian church we 
know not, but it is obvious that the apostle, in the 
text, has no reference to this, because he is com 
trasting the visibilities of the Hebrew economy, 
which were now passing away with that in the 
Church, which is ever unchangeable. "And this 
word," says the apostle, " signifieth the remaining 
of those that are shaken as of things that are made, 
that those things which cannot be shaken may 
remain, wherefore we, receiving a kingdom that 
cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we 
may serve God acceptably, with reverence and with 
godly fear." As though he had said that which is 
external and visible in the Hebrew economy is 
shaken, and will pass away with all temporal things ; 
what is immovable and unchangeable in the king- 
dom of God and of Christ, we receive in the dispen* 



J. C. LORD, D. D. 239 

sation of the Gospel, which is committed to us. 
The external order of the Church has ever partaken 
of the same law of change which we observe in 
the kingdoms of this world. There have been va- 
rious dispensations, various external successions, and 
diverse forms of government in the kingdom of 
Christ. The Church has worshipped under different 
forms and administrations ; she has had priesthoods 
and rituals, and she has been without them ; she 
has had sacred localities to which her service has 
been confined, and where it has been prescribed. 
" Our fathers," said the woman of Samaria, " wor- 
shipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jeru- 
salem is the place where men ought to worship. 
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour 
cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor 
yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." The He- 
brew was shut up to the hill of Zion ; the tribes 
went up to worship God at the sacred temple ; there 
was the holy of holies ; there was the Shekinah, the 
visible glory of the invisible king ; there only could 
the sacrifice of the law be offered. Of that locality 
the Holy Ghost had uttered these words, "His 
foundation is the holy mountain ; the Lord loveth 
the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places 
of Jacob ; glorious things are spoken of thee, city 
of God; all my springs are in thee." But the true 
succession, the unchangeable priesthood, the one 
sacrifice that perfecteth for ever, was not in the tem- 
ple service which passed away, because it was but a 
shadow of the substantial things in that kingdom 
that cannot be moved. The same faith that had 
been symbolised in the temple for centuries, pre- 



240 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

served, as in a fortified city, by the Hebrew, to whom 
was committed the oracles of God, embalmed in his 
economy, defended like some forms of life in nature 
in the chrysalis state, until the appointed day of 
their enlargement, when they can spread their wings 
safely in the sun. The faith of Abel, and Enoch, 
and Noah, and Abraham, was now proclaimed in 
every valley and on every mountain. Christ cru- 
cified was set forth in every habitation, from the 
palace of Nero at Home, to the hut of the savage 
Scythian' in the northern wilderness. " The Church 
of God, which is in thy house," was the language 
of the apostles in their epistles to the brethren; 
the congregation of believers assembled for worship 
in dens and caves of the earth ; the sacred symbols, 
of the most holy passion of our Lord, were exhibited 
in fields and forests, or wherever else the Christian 
minister and his flock could escape from the obser- 
vation of their persecutors. The ensigns of the 
kingdom that cannot be moved went out from the 
temple and the ritual of the Hebrews, to be given to 
the breeze in every island, and continent, and sea. 

Nor is ecclesiastical order in the house of God the 
element of permanency spoken of in the text. There 
can be no doubt of its value and importance in its 
place, but it is very certain that no visible priest- 
hood, no one form of church government, no un- 
broken succession of ordinations or ordinances have 
constituted or manifested the unchangeableness of 
that kingdom that cannot be moved. There are 
many administrations, though but one Lord. The 
Church is represented by the apostle as having an 
unchangeable priesthood only in Christ, who abideth 



241 

for ever ; the doctrines of the Cross and not the forms 
in which they are exhibited remain, through succes- 
sive dispensations, and survive them all, the same 
with the divine Authors "yesterday, to-day and 
for ever." 

There is an analogy in civil governments which 
are ordained of God, in which we perceive a diver- 
sity of administrations, or rather a diversity of forms 
under which they may be and are administered. 
We have a right to our opinion as to which of these 
is preferable, but it is no where contended that go- 
vernment can have no valid existence except in a 
particular mode. We think the Scriptures clearly 
make the validity of statutes, and the recognition of 
the authority of the magistrate to consist, not in the 
form but in the fact of government, and this is 
agreeable to the principles of international law. 
States do not refuse to recognise each other because 
their governments are administered under different 
forms; it is only a condition of anarchy which is out 
of the pale of all national fellowship. " The powers 
that be," says the apostle, "are ordained of God," 
that is, existing powers or administrations, under 
whatever diversities they appear; the fact and not 
the form of government is that which is divinely 
ordained, and hence the former is universal and un- 
changeable, according to the purpose and will of the 
supreme Governor, while in respect to the latter 
there is no law of permanency, but rather one of 
change, accommodated to the wants, the progress 
and circumstances of particular nations, ages and 
races. Is there any evidence that a different prin- 
ciple prevails for the government of the church, or 

17 



242 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

that God lias prescribed an infallible order of exter- 
nal rituals, without which all faith and all penitence 
are vain? Has the Most High bound his Church to 
any thing more than the fact of government, upon 
the general principles found in the New Testament, 
since the day that the shadows of the Hebrew eco- 
nomy gave place to the light and liberty of the gos- 
pel dispensation? While we endeavour to approxi- 
mate as nearly as possible to what appears to us to 
have been the order of the apostles and the primi- 
tive Church, have we a right to refuse to all others 
the Christian name; to say with the Jews, "The 
temple of the Lord are we," or to exclude from the 
pale of the visible kingdom of God and from our 
Christian charity, those who cast out devils in the 
name of Christ, though they follow not with us? 
That charity has its boundaries we freely concede, 
but we do not believe that they are to be found in 
mere questions of church order, for these are not the 
immutable foundations of the kingdom of Christ. 
Wherever the fundamental doctrines of the gospel 
are denied, there is no basis for fellowship, and to 
form one in such a case is betraying the Master into 
the hands of his enemies. " If there come any to 
you," says the apostle John, " and bring not this doc- 
trine, receive him not into your house, neither bid 
him God speed ; he that abideth not in the doctrine 
of Christ hath not God, and every spirit that con- 
fesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh 
is not of God ; he is antichrist that denieth the Fa- 
ther and the Son, and whosoever denieth the Son 
the same hath not the Father." The doctrines of 
the divinity, incarnation and sacrifice of Christ, of 



J. C. LORD, D. D. 243 

the divinity and office of the Holy Spirit, and his 
work of conviction, regeneration and sanctification, 
of salvation by grace without the deeds of the law 
and of eternal judgment, are fundamental in the 
gospel scheme, and if rejected compel us to refuse 
fellowship with those who deny them. 

That is a true Church which maintains what has 
been common in all the dispensations of the king- 
dom of Christ — the doctrine of redemption by the 
sacrifice of the Son of God, and the symbol or sacra- 
ment of it as found in all the economies of the 
Church. The first revelation of the truth was in the 
garden; its symbol or sacrament, which is the visible 
sign and expression of it, was in the sacrifices com- 
mon to all the dispensations of the Church until the 
coming of Christ, when the Lord's supper took its 
place, pointing back to the cross, or to a perfected 
work, as the former had prefigured it before its con- 
summation. Upon this view that congregation of 
worshippers who profess the common doctrine, and 
exhibit the common sacrament, which has been main- 
tained in the kingdom of God in all ages, dispensa- 
tions and changes, is a true Church of Christ, and to 
be recognised as such by all believers, whatever ex- 
ternal differences of order, ritual or government may 
distinguish them. 

But there is another aspect in which this subject 
may be presented, another sense in which the im- 
mutability, and, consequently, the real visibility and 
unity of the church may be apprehended. The king- 
dom of grace, as established in the soul of every be- 
liever, called according to the purpose of God, is one 
that is immovable; and that this is principally in- 



244 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

tended in the text, may be argued from the form of 
the expression, "we receiving a kingdom that can- 
not be moved," for we come to what is external and 
ritual in the church ; we receive what is renewing and 
sanctifying ; we come by a public profession to the 
city of the living God; we receive by divine grace 
" the kingdom of heaven within us." 

The kingdom of grace is that principle of holiness 
which is imparted to, and sustained in, the soul by 
the Holy Ghost. It is practically manifest and visi- 
ble to men in a cordial reception of divine truth, and 
in practical obedience to the commandments. It is 
known by its unity of faith and character in all 
ages and dispensations. Here is the abiding unity 
of the Church from the family of Adam to the 
present day, and to the existing company of be- 
lievers, by whatever name called ; here is the " holy 
generation, the royal priesthood, the peculiar peo- 
ple," whose succession is visible not merely from the 
apostles, and for the last two thousand years, but 
for sixty centuries, and from Abel and Enoch, from 
Noah and Abraham. As the book of Genesis and 
the gospel of Mathew, as the revelation of Job and 
that of John, contain the same doctrine, so there is a 
succession of- men, from the apostacy to the present 
time, receiving the same faith, practising the same 
godliness, and exhibiting the same sacrament. Here 
is the remnant after the election of grace, here the 
true Israel, for what is real and fundamental in 
Christian experience is real and fundamental in the 
visibility of the Church, and constitutes that true 
unity which binds together all true believers from 
the beginning to the end of the world. 



J. C. LOED D. D. 245 

But, more particularly, let us inquire why this 
kingdom of grace cannot be moved. 

1 1. Because it is a spiritual kingdom set up in the 
soul itself, which does not partake of the changeable 
character of temporal foundations. u The things 
that are seen are temporal," even in the Church of 
God ; but the things which are unseen are eternal. 
The visible and external dispensations of the Church 
have each in turn been shaken and moved, and 
shall be ; its rituals and ordinances, its government 
and sacraments, have their appointed day, and must 
at last disappear, when time is swallowed up in 
eternity, and death in victory ; but the kingdom of 
grace, set up in the soul, abides for ever. The 
heavens shall pass away, the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat, all visible things and forms shall 
wax old, and, as worn out vestures, shall be folded 
up, but this kingdom, like its Author, shall not fail, 
and of its years there shall be no end. 

This kingdom shall not be moved for another 
reason. It originated in the purpose of God, and is 
maintained by his power. It can never die out of 
the world, because the Father hath given a seed to 
the Son in all generations ; because, in the covenant 
of redemption, the heathen are promised to him for 
his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for a possession. The Church for this has survived 
all changes, outlived all persecutions, and, with im- 
mortal youth, walks among the graves of false phi- 
losophies, of decayed superstitions, purifying the 
polluted atmosphere, and pointing the heirs of sin 
and death to an inheritance incorruptible and unde- 
fined, eternal in the heavens. So, in the soul, if the 



246 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

kingdom of grace be set up, it cannot be moved ; 
for it is the Spirit that quickeneth, it is Christ that 
died, yea rather that is risen again, who ever liveth to 
make intercession for us, so that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor heighth, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to sepa- 
rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." 

This kingdom cannot be moved because it is that 
on account of which all others exist. God perpetu- 
ates the race, and ordains governments and exercises 
a universal providence over the evil and the good, 
for the reason that he has a people which he will 
take out of all nations and races. For this the 
wicked live, because in their generations are num- 
bered the elect ; for this empires are founded, and 
flourish and fall ; for this the tares and the wheat 
grow together till the harvest; for this "the hea- 
then are permitted to rage and the people to ima- 
gine a vain thing," until the day when all nations 
shall hear the voice of him that sitteth in the hea- 
vens, saying, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy 
hill of Zion, and I will give him the uttermost parts 
of the earth for his possession." All temporal king- 
doms are but scaffolding for the building of God; all 
revolutions tend to accomplish his designs. "Wars 
break down the barriers which prevent the progress 
of the gospel; migrations for gold are caravans to 
carry the Bible and the missionary of the Cross to 
the dark places of the earth. God and the Church 
are the explanation of history, without which it is a 
dark unreadable enigma. 



247 



This kingdom of grace is immovable, because its 
author and head, its prophet, priest and king, is 
divine, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and 
the Holy Ghost, The eternity and immutability 
of his nature attaches itself to the church purchased 
by his blood; because he lives and reigns, his people 
shall live and reign with him. The two natures of 
the God-man mediator may be said to symbolise the 
two aspects under which his church may be viewed; 
in one we see the weakness and changeableness of 
finite things, in the external order of his visible king- 
dom, in its exposedness to corruptness, declensions 
and heresies ; in its various dispensations and chang- 
ing rituals; in the other, we see the law of absolute 
permanency in the one faith and the one sacrament 
preserved in all generations. So in the individual 
Christian, the weakness of a finite nature and its 
remaining corruptions are ever in noticeable con- 
trast with the power of that divine life in the souls 
of believers, which is the working of the Holy Spi- 
rit, who is able to keep them from falling, as the 
Son in his own righteousness is able to present them 
faultless and spotless before the presence of the Fa- 
ther with exceeding joy. 

Finally, do you inquire how can a congregation 
of professed worshippers know that they belong to 
this immovable kingdom ; how can the individual 
satisfy himself whether he be of the household of 
faith to whom pertain the promises ? The answer 
is easy ; upon the principles we have suggested, the 
congregation have only to ascertain whether they 
have the faith and the sacrament that. has charac- 
terised the true Church in all her dispensations ; for 



248 PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 

this they must search the Scriptures, and seek to, 
know the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in them, 
the only infallible guide to truth and judge of con- 
troversies. 

There is no view of the subject which can furnish 
so solid a ground of satisfaction to the individual as 
the one we Lave suggested. Whether he has re- 
ceived this kingdom, is upon the basis presented, a 
matter of consciousness ; it is not a matter of inves- 
tigation, of endless genealogies, full of difficulties 
which perplex even the learned, but a question of 
fact in the believer's personal experience. Is the 
kingdom of God within him ? Is the love of God 
shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost ? Are 
the fruits of the Spirit manifested in his life ? Are 
the truths of the gospel dear to him ? Does he cleave 
to Christ and his imputed righteousness as the sole 
ground of his justification? Are the doctrines which 
exalt God and stain the pride of human glory pre- 
cious to his soul? Has he some foretaste of heaven 
in the religious emotions, the gratitude and praise 
that are kindred in his bosom? Has he received the 
same spiritual baptism with holy men of old, and 
does he find the revelation of his own conflict with 
the world, the flesh, and the devil, in the inspired 
record of their trials and their experience ? Is not 
here the only reasonable and satisfactory assurance 
of eternal life ? Is not all else of the nature of for- 
malism or rationalism vague, uncertain and unsatis- 
factory? I speak to wise men, judge ye! 



SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

BY 

J. H. JONES, D. D. 

PASTOR OF THE SIXTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which aie 
not seen. — 2 Cor. iv. 18. 



And this furnishes a key to the changed conduct 
and life of Paul after his conversion. His sundering 
of personal, social, and domestic ties ; his voluntary 
renunciation of so many things that were gain to 
him — wealth, distinction, and honour — for the sake 
of Christ. However appalling to others the prospect 
before him — disgrace, poverty, extreme bodily peril, 
and probable martyrdom — yet none of these things 
moved him. There were other things, and greater 
far than these, by which he was influenced, and 
which had a substantial presence, though invisible 
to the eye of sense. Those grand and awful realities 
of the unseen world that were hidden from others 
were visible to him. Hence the apostle acted as 
if the Judge of quick and dead, to whom he was 
to give account, was ever present to counsel, direct, 
and overawe him. But what is here asserted by the 

(249) 



250 SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

author of our text concerning himself, is verified in 
the life of all who are governed by his principles. 
While the things that present the predominant mo- 
tives of their conduct are not seen, they act as if 
they were habitually before them, as really as are 
the objects of sense, which so much affect the con- 
duct of others. This is the truth on which it is 
proposed to enlarge in this discourse, and use for our 
practical advantage. 

The thought here is complex, and may be ex- 
pressed in the two following propositions : 

I. That the things which furnish the most cogent 
motives to a religious life are invisible, but 

II. That the consistent believer lives habitually 
as if he saw them. 

The former of these propositions, it is well known, 
has been urged by the sceptical as a serious objec- 
tion to our religion, viz : that its motives are, to such 
an extent, derived from things unseen, and not from 
objects best suited to affect us in our present condi- 
tion ; that its rewards and punishments are, in the 
main, prospective, and look to a future state, and not 
the present. The same has been said of its doctrines 
generally, that they are abstruse and incomprehen- 
sible. What a dense and impenetrable mist of dark- 
ness hangs over the grave ! Death, we are taught, 
is but the beginning of an endless life ; that it is not 
the end of consciousness, but a physical change 
merely — a separation of the mortal from the immor- 
tal part of man for a season only, when they are to 
be reunited in a state of eternal retribution. But 
how little of this is warranted by what we see ? 
Even the Saviour, who is represented as the only 



251 

hope of the guilty, is also concealed ; and God no 
man hath seen nor can see. He dwelleth in light 
which no man can approach unto, and why is this? 
Why should that sort of truth, on whose practical 
influence depends the eternal welfare of the soul, be 
so hidden from our senses ? Why not indulge us 
occasionally with the sight of a resurrection — a fa- 
vour which it is so easy for God to grant ? Why not 
permit the reappearing of a departed acquaintance 
or relative, to tell us about the invisible world? 
Why could not Paul, or Augustine, Luther, Baxter, 
Watts, or some other distinguished saint, come back 
to the earth for a time, as Moses and Elias did for 
the special instruction of Peter and John? What a 
confirmation of our faith if we might be permitted 
to see them ! 

The objection implied in these and similar queries 
would be reasonable, if the evidence of sense were 
the only sort that is satisfactory and conclusive ; or 
were the main obstacles to a practical belief of the 
truth to be found in the mind, and capable of being 
dislodged by argument, and not in the heart beyond 
the reach of any appeals merely to the reason ; 
or had not the impotency of ocular demonstration 
been exposed by repeated cases of restoration to life, 
and in none more signal than the example of Laza- 
rus. But the influence of vision was tried, and its in- 
efficiency shown, under both the Old Testament and 
the New. The Saviour tested its power in the case 
to which I have just referred, and had he opened the 
door of the unseen world a hundred times, and 
evoked Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and scores of de- 
parted Hebrews from the unseen world, it could have 



252 SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

proved no more concerning a future state of existence 
than was witnessed in thus recalling the spirit of 
one of the family at Bethany. The Jews, who saw 
this resurrection, were just as sceptical afterwards 
as they had been before. Nor would your heart, 
reader, nor mine, be more impressed by the sight of 
apparitions from the other world than theirs were. 
It is equally true concerning us, that if we hear not 
Moses, the prophets and apostles, neither will we be 
persuaded, though one rose from the dead. 

It is a mistake, therefore, to assert that the mo- 
tives of religion are so inoperative, because they are 
drawn from things not seen or remote. On the 
other hand, it could easily be shown that our know- 
ledge, even of sensible objects, is rather presumptive 
than real, and that our senses are continually lead- 
ing us into error. Indeed, the terms of what we call 
science are rather symbols of what we do not know, 
than exponents of what we do know. There is 
much that is mysterious and inexplicable in matter, 
motion, electricity, life, fee, as well as in original 
sin, the Trinity, or regeneration. The technical de- 
finitions of philosophy would seem to be invented to 
conceal her ignorance ; and we are just as unac- 
quainted with the real nature or essence of things 
that we see, taste and feel, as we are with the in- 
visible tilings of God. It is well known that Dr. 
Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne, disproved the existence 
of matter in opposition to the testimony of the 
senses, and not by quibble and sophistical reasoning, 
but, as Reid says, by taking up the principles laid 
down by Descartes, Malebranche, and Locke, and 
carrying them out to their legitimate conclusions. 



j. n. jones, d. d. 253 

It is the boast of those who reject the supernatural 
and unseen in religion, that we have a competent 
guide and instructor in reason ; but the history of 
the inquiries which philosophers have instituted 
into the powers and laws of the mind, is suited to 
impress us far more deeply with the imperfection of 
our faculties than their greatness. 

It is now the nineteenth century of progress in 
human philosophy since the advent ; ample time, we 
should say, for arriving at definite conclusions on the 
most familiar subjects, as, for example, the problem 
of our own nature, the number, the office, and the 
laws of our several faculties. We should naturally 
suppose it to be easier to gain a knowledge of these 
than of the elements and laws of the material world. 
And yet there is no question, among the metaphy- 
sicians of the day, more absolutely unsettled than 
this. Some of them tell us that " God is the only 
cause in the universe, and that we are but the sub- 
jects or organs of effects which he immediately pro- 
duces. Others, that w r e are real and responsible 
agents. Some teach that creatures are a part of God ; 
others, that God is but the aggregate of his creatures ; 
and others again, that w r e are wholly material, mind, 
soul, and body, and that we perish at death ; most, 
however, that we have a spiritual and immaterial, 
as well as corporeal nature. Some maintain that 
none of our perceptions and thoughts are any thing 
more than sensations; others that we have ideas 
of immaterial things, as well as of those that are 
discerned by the senses. Some that we indeed have 
conceptions of God, but are without any proofs of 
their truth ; others that w r e are capable of a real 



254 SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

knowledge of him. Many contend that we put 
forth our choice under the impulse of blind power, 
and others that we exert our volitions for reasons 
of which we are conscious." 

Here then, are no less than twelve proposed so- 
lutions of this problem of our nature, which appears 
to be just as open to debate now as it ever was. 
We might turn, then, upon the boaster of the suffi- 
ciency of reason and inquire, Why is this? Why is 
knowledge derived through the senses or by study 
so uncertain and unsatisfying? Why are things 
tangible and visible so deceptive, that we need only 
love and follow them with all our heart to be in- 
volved in certain ruin? Though they inspire us 
with the highest hopes, they fulfil none of their pro- 
mises. They never make us happier in this world, 
nor fit us to be happy in the world to come. What 
other explanation can be given of this perplexing 
fact than that which is furnished by the volume of 
Revelation ? Here we learn that the whole creation 
groans and sympathizes in the lapsed and unhappy 
condition of man. That the "things seen" are in 
their very nature uncertain, unsatisfying and falla- 
cious, and that those which are real and worthy of 
our love and confidence are invisible. And while 
they who look only at the former will be disap- 
pointed and lost, those will be infallibly happy as 
well as safe who look at the latter, and who rely on 
that higher good which lies beyond and without the 
scope of mortal vision. To those who have not 
made the trial, this may seem impracticable, but it 
is just the reverse with those who have made it, and 
who, like the apostle Paul, judge from experiment 



J. II. JONES, D. D. Zbtj 

Of these there has always been a " little flock" in 
the world, from Abel and Enoch downwards, and 
the day is fast approaching when their number will 
be greatly increased. 

Having offered these few hints concerning the 
former, and the power of those motives which are 
drawn from things invisible, I proceed to notice the 
other truth inculcated by the apostle, that 

II. The consistent believer lives habitually as if 
he saw them. He "looks not at the things that are 
seen, but at those which are not seen." That won- 
derful faculty, by which a man is enabled to realize 
the paradox of seeing the things that are invisible, 
is called faith. And because both classes to which I 
refer, they who look at the visible as well as those 
who look at the things not seen, lay claim to this 
faith, the Scriptures discriminate. In the nomen- 
clature of theology the faith of the one is called spec- 
ulative, and the other an evangelical faith ; a differ- 
ence founded not on the comparative amount of their 
intellect, advantages of education, standing in society, 
or extent even of their religious knowledge, but 
solely on the different state of their hearts. 

The things unseen, though commended to the 
mind with the cogency of moral demonstration, are 
repelled by the one, because they are distasteful. 
The mind assents to the truth of them as things 
that are proved, but they are not obeyed because 
they are rejected by the heart, just as a patient often 
admits the excellency of a medical prescription, which 
he will not follow because it is nauseous. This is 
the faith of one class of believers. In the case of 
the other, these invisible things receive at once the 



256 SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

approbation of the mind and the heart. By the in- 
fluence of the Spirit their heart has been so pre- 
pared, that its affections and tastes are brought into 
conformity with those invisible realities of the spir- 
itual world, which are now made to influence their 
conduct. Hence their view of the unseen things, 
by faith, is not only more accurate, but it is more 
operative than are any discoveries of reason, or even 
of sense. 

It is more accurate. Indeed, as it is the pro- 
vince of reason to correct the errors of sense, it 
is the prerogative of faith to correct the mistakes 
of reason. If we look upwards and survey the hea- 
vens, the planet Yenus appears to the eye as diminu- 
tive as the blaze of a candle. This is an error of 
sense, which reason corrects by having discovered 
that it is nearly the size of our earth, and the cause 
of its seeming so little is its distance. So the re- 
jecter of Christianity is equally deceived by his rea- 
son in his estimate of Jesus Christ, and the cause is 
the same — his immense moral distance. u This mis- 
taken man accounts the Saviour and his glory a 
smaller matter than his own gain, honour or plea- 
sure ; for these are near to him, and he counts them 
bigger, yea, and far more valuable than they really 
are." But they who, like our apostle, can look at 
things that are not seen by others, and by help of 
the telescope of faith can see the remote glories of 
Christ in their proper dimensions, regard the coveted 
pleasures and honours of the world as dross ; they are 
but a taper, when compared with the light of the sun. 

It is well known, moreover, that constant sight 
produces familiarity, so that the effect of objects 



257 

seen grows less. It is not so with faith ; this be- 
comes stronger by continuance, and the more fre- 
quently we dwell upon any object by faith the more 
we feel its power; a familiar fact, which suggests 
another answer to the objection against Revelation, 
already noticed, founded on the want of sensible 
evidence. We see that faith is better adapted to 
bring the sublime truths of the gospel home to the 
soul, and make them to be felt at once, and more 
permanently, than if they were apprehended by 
reason only, or sense. 

Reason, says Pascal, acts so tardily, and on the 
ground of so many different views and principles, 
which she requires to have always before her, that 
she is continually becoming drowsy and inert, or 
going actively astray for want of seeing the whole 
case at once. It were well, then, after our reason 
has ascertained what is truth, to endeavour to feel 
it, and to associate our faith with the affections of 
the heart. For with the heart man believeth ante 
righteousness. " The heart has its reasons, of which 
reason knows nothing. We find this in a thousand 
instances. It is the heart which feels God, and not 
the reasoning powers ; and this is faith made per- 
fect ; God realized by feeling in the heart." 

But this view of invisible things by faith is 
more operative. — The unseen heaven is constantly 
before such a believer as his home, and the place of 
his everlasting rest. The unseen hell is before him, 
not as a figment of the Christian school, nor a fright- 
ful invention of pagan mythology, but a reality, to 
be escaped for his life, as Lot fled from the fire and 
brimstone that were bursting on Sodom. The law 

18 



258 SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

of God is before him ; it was invisible once, like the 
angel with his sword in the path of Balaam, or, like 
Saul of Tarsus, he was alive without it; but the 
scales have fallen from his eyes also, and he sees it 
plainly now. His faith renders the truths of Reve- 
lation all palpable and real. As the apostle so em- 
phatically defines this grace, it is the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Such, then, is the characteristic difference between 
the two classes of believers to which I have referred. 
How they are divided, or what the ratio of real to 
nominal or speculative believers, who but the 
Searcher of hearts can tell ? But if only they be- 
long to the former who evince their faith in the 
unseen realities of religion by their lives, the num- 
ber is very small compared with the multitudes who 
are known as religious professors. Where is the 
man who lives as if he felt the eye of the invisible 
and rein-trying God to be continually upon him ? 
Who is he that obeys the precepts of the law as if 
the omniscient Author were always present, to be- 
stow its gracious rewards or enforce its penalties? 
And if you look abroad, from the Church to the 
world, how are we impressed with the abounding 
practical atheism? 

Who is the Almighty, say the multitude by their 
conduct, that ice should serve him, and what profit 
shoidd we have if we pray mnto Mm ? To them he 
is only a Deity in theory, an article of a creed, a 
metaphysical abstraction, a God afar off, and not at 
hand. But how soon must this epicurean dreaming 
be over, and the curtain fall which separates the 
seen from the invisible ? It may seem remote to 



259 

many of you at the same time that it is fearfully 
near. A slip of your foot, a mistake of your 
apothecary, a cold, a fever, an attack of epidemic 
disease, or some arrow from the ten thousand which 
fill the Almighty's quiver, may lay some of us low 
even before another week, and reveal the retribu- 
tions of eternity. Happy, healthful, and sanguine 
as you now are, so short a time as this, may bring 
you to the bar of this unseen but disregarded and 
dishonoured God. Nor are these things any more 
distant and unreal, because so many live as if they 
were at an infinite remove ; because they are little 
more heeded than if they were the mere epic fictions 
of a Virgil or Dante, and not the inspirations of 
God. It was amazing effrontery in Jehoikim to 
treat the message of Jeremiah with so much con- 
tempt, in spite of the expostulations of Elnathan, 
Delaiah, and Gemariah. But his despising of the 
prophecy did not rescue this infatuated prince from 
being made a captive, put to death, and having his 
body cast into a common sewer, like the unburied 
carcass of an ass. His coolly taking the prophet's 
roll, cutting it with a penknife, and casting it into the 
fire, did not prevent its fulfilment. And however 
the gay and the worldly may disregard the inspired 
roll of warnings, expostulations, and promises which 
are addressed to them, the time is coming when they 
will all be verified. Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but His word shall not pass away. The dis- 
tinction between a life of Christian virtue, and a life 
of sin, which so many will not see now, they will be 
compelled to see and acknowledge when they begin 
to feel its results. And, in view of such humiliating 



260 SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

facts in human experience and conduct, who, that 
reflects and feels their import, oan doubt man's need 
of supernatural aid ? He is not an alien and a wan- 
derer from God, because his true condition has not 
been revealed to him. He does not reject the Sa- 
viour because he does not hear him preached, and 
even listen with assent to the recital of his advent, 
life, and death, as the substitute and friend of the 
guilty ; but with all this persuasion of the mind and 
conscience, like some spectators at the resurrection 
of Lazarus, the truth does not reach his heart. The 
real beauty and excellency of the Saviour are in- 
visible, nor are any teachings of the pulpit and pen 
sufficient to make them known. There is an obsta- 
cle to knowledge here, which man has neither the 
desire nor the power to remove. 

Imagine a garden of exquisite beauty, and adorned 
with every plant, fruit and flower that money and 
taste can collect, with fountains and rivulets to en- 
hance its varied attractions. Suppose that you meet 
a stranger here, who, with an eye to all appearance 
healthful, passes along without bestowing the least 
attention upon a single object. In your bursts of 
ecstatic delight, as you look at this or that beautiful 
parterre, so blooming and fragrant, he is silent, re- 
turning only a vacant gaze. Surely, you would say, 
this stranger is blind; he cannot see as I see, or 
what I see ; and, upon inquiry, you find your con- 
jecture to be correct; this man has eyes that see 
not. What you perceive and enjoy is invisible to 
him, and something more is needed than you can 
impart by your taste and botanical knowledge to 
make him share in your enjoyment. The case sup- 



J. H. JONES, D. D. 2G] 

posed is easily interpreted : the natural man re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they 
are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned. Some time 
ago, a young man of gay and dissipated habits, on 
returning from a meeting of kindred spirits, at a late 
hour of the night, discovered on his table a printed 
sheet, left there he knew not by whom ; he was a 
despiser of tracts, and scarcely less of those who 
distributed them ; but, wearied and exhausted, and 
yet, unsatisfied as he was with the pleasures of the 
evening, he was in a mood for any thing that would 
occupy his thoughts. This little sheet proved to be 
a messenger of God ; his mind had been well in- 
structed in the truths of religion before, but they 
had never reached his heart ; the night was spent 
in a state of deep and overwhelming conviction, but 
morning came at length, and with it the beams of 
the sun of righteousness; he left his chamber, he 
knew not what, so changed were his feelings and 
views of every thing ; he looked upwards, and " the 
heavens declared the glory of God." He never saw 
it there before ; he looked abroad, and every object, 
and every stream, plant, flower, tree, bird and beast, 
reflected the same. The Bible was new and full of 
God, especially as manifested in Christ. 

When God revealed his gracious name, 

And changed his mournful state, 
The rapture seemed a pleasing dream, 

The grace appeared so great. 

The whole creation was teeming with beauties, 
thrown over them by the hand of God, and, though 
hidden before, they were visible now. And can you 



262 SEEING THINGS INVISIBLE. 

tell me ? reader, why? The heavens were not 
changed, nor the earth, nor the objects that cover 
it ; these were all the same, but the change was in 
himself. And does any one inquire in what re- 
spect? How were his eyes opened? He was a tro- 
phy of the Spirit ; the man was born again ; old 
things had passed away, and all things had become 
new. Are there not some among the readers of his 
story who need the same change ? Do you know 
that this life giving Spirit is promised to all who 
seek his influences ? And what is so ineffably im- 
portant as that you should know or practically feel 
the teaching of the Saviour to the Jewish ruler, 
except a man he horn again he cannot see the langdom 
of God. 



CHRIST, THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 
A DIS COUKSE 



TO ILLUSTRATE THE NATURE OF THE DIVINE LIFE ; AND ITS DEVELOP* 
MENT IN OUR SPIRITUAL, OUR MORTAL, AND OUR ETERNAL BEING. 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D., L. L. D. 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LEXINGTON, KY., AND SUPERIN- 
TENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR THE COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY. 



Christ, who is our life. — Col. iii. 4. 

The grand point of view in which we should 
habitually contemplate the Scriptures, is as a divine 
revelation of the only mode in which lost sinners 
can be saved. As a history of much that has hap- 
pened in this world of ours, the enduring importance 
of its statements results from their setting before us 
the method in which this salvation is brought to 
light, and applied practically to men. As a spiritual 
system, unfolding and enforcing a most peculiar 
view of the unseen world, and our relations to it, its 
living power is derived from the bearing of its doc- 
trines upon our eternal destiny, as depraved crea- 
tures to whom divine mercy is offered in a particular 
way. As a code of morals suited to direct the con- 
science, and to regulate the life of such beings as we 

(263) 



264 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

are, it is the connection of its precepts with the doc- 
trines which constitute its spiritual system, and the 
dependence of both upon its great proposal of salva- 
tion for sinners, which invests its rules of duty with 
so much majesty, and gives such sublime force to the 
idea of duty itself. As a source of support, of con- 
solation, of peace, and of joy, in such a world as 
this, and in such a course as our pilgrimage through 
it must needs be, it can avail us nothing, except as 
we receive its precepts, and accept its doctrines, and 
believe its statements, as one and the other bear 
directly upon the grand conception of the Gospel — 
salvation for lost sinners. Every thing short of this 
is little better than trifling with our own souls. 
Every thing inconsistent with this is little else than 
handling the word of God deceitfully. 

Whatever men may imagine concerning other 
portions of the contents of God's Word, it is past all 
doubt that the portion which relates to the person, 
the work, and the glory of the Lord Jesus, must be 
invested with divine power, or must be absolutely 
useless in the matter of our salvation. That part 
of the Scriptures is a glorious revelation, or it is a 
most empty imposture. Let us proudly conceive 
what may suit our vain and foolish hearts, about the 
history, the morality, nay, even the religion of the 
Bible, using the word religion in its largest sense, 
and persuade ourselves, if we will, that all these 
things are level to our unaided faculties, and that no 
divine wisdom, nor any divine power, is manifested 
in them. The moment we come upon the concep- 
tion of the Son of God incarnate to save sinners, 
and begin to expatiate amidst any of the multiplied 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 265 

and overwhelming exhibitions which are made, 
throughout the Scriptures, of this vast conception, 
we find ourselves carried at once, into a region 
where, at every step, we must recognise the guid- 
ance and the presence of God, or we must nerve 
ourselves before the most daring of all human im- 
postures, invested with more than all human force 
and grace, and all available to no end. There is not 
one solitary point connected with the person, the 
work, or the glory of Jesus Christ — nothing that 
touches his humiliation or exaltation — that is in- 
volved in his prophetic, his priestly, or his kingly 
office — that concerns his incarnation, his sacrifice, 
or his resurrection — that fits him to be the Ke- 
deemer of God's elect, or exhibits his work of 
redemption — that relates to his eternal being or his 
eternal reign ; there is absolutely nothing, in the 
presence of which human nature can stand and say, 
I know this to be true, or, I know this to be effectual 
in the manner, and for the end proposed ! God 
must utter it, God must propound it, or it must be 
uttered and propounded alike in mockery of God 
and man — an audacious braving of the majesty of 
heaven — a ferocious trifling with the sorrows and the 
hopes of earth — a fiendish aggravation of the woes 
of hell ! 

The alternative we take is the one which gives us 
peace and reconciles us to God. They who like can 
take the other, and reap its fruits. Taking that 
alternative, we must bear in mind its fundamental 
condition as a question to be settled at the bar of 
human reason, namely, that this whole, doctrine of 
Christ, and of the salvation offered to us through 



266 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

him, is a matter of pure and absolute revelation. It 
is God who has spoken, it is God who propounds it 
to us ; we accept, in its simplicity and its fulness, 
every word which has proceeded out of the mouth 
of God ; and we attest our sincerity herein by sitting 
down at the feet of Jesus, to learn of him, and by 
resting our souls upon him. We must remember, 
also, the second great condition, which in the very 
nature of the case controls the whole question, 
namely, that all these utterances of God, all that he 
propounds concerning his only begotten Son, are 
matters connected, more or less, directly with the 
salvation of lost sinners, and that herein lies the sum 
total of our interest in it all. Thus full of the sense 
of God's presence in his Word; thus alive to the 
awful interest with which that Word is invested for 
us — there is no part of it in which we may not find 
some manifestation of that infinite grace in which 
all of it is conceived, and we shall see, with joyful 
surprise, how directly and how continually this 
recovery of our souls is its burden and its theme. 
Amongst ten thousand other passages, my text is all 
alive with this precious Saviour, and this great sal- 
vation. To him as our life, and to the nature of the 
life we enjoy in him, in our spiritual, our mortal, and 
our eternal being, the apostle, in this passage, directs 
our thoughts. Such is, therefore, the subject of our 
present meditations. 

Amongst the things expressly revealed to us, con- 
cerning the origin and destiny of our race, are these 
which follow, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ is 
the only and the absolute Creator of the entire 
physical universe, and every part of it ; that he is 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 267 

the author of all that we call life, the bestower of 
every thing that we understand by conscious exist- 
ence, throughout the universe ; and that every 
form, and every grade of what we mean by intelli- 
gence, from the lowest manifestation of it, in any 
living thing, up to its most exalted exhibition in his 
presence around God's throne, is an emanation and 
a gift from him. (John i. 1 — 14.) By the entrance 
of sin, first into heaven, and then upon the earth, 
this universal frame of nature has fallen under 
God's curse ; and every creature that possesses con- 
scious existence, and every being endowed with 
intelligence — each in proportion to its own degree, 
and its own connection and dependence with fallen 
angels and fallen men — has lost its primeval estate, 
and fallen under the divine wrath. (Gen. iii. 14 — 19 ; 
Rom. v. 12—21, and viii. 20—23; Jude 6.) 

The wages of sin is death, (Rom. vi. 23.) This is 
the comprehensive, the unalterable necessity which 
pervades the universe, and which God has an- 
nounced to us as the simple and universal result of 
the administration of divine justice against sinners. 
They who sin must die ; transgression leads directly 
to death ; in the nature of the case, and without any 
exception, and by the eternal ordination of God, 
when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and 
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, (James 
i. 15.) This terrible and universal penalty of sin 
is set before us in the Scriptures in a threefold light. 

1. In a point of view purely moral; namely, the se- 
paration of our whole man, in this life, from the 
likeness and favour of God — which is spiritual death. 

2. In a point of view purely physical; namely, the 



268 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

separation of our souls and bodies from each other — 
which is temporal death. 3. In a point of view re- 
sulting from a certain combination of both the pre- 
ceding ; namely, the ruin of our souls and bodies in 
hell for ever — which is the second death. (Ephe- 
sians ii. 1 — 3 ; Ecclesiastes xii. 7 ; Matt. xxv. 41 ; 
Rev. xx. 14.) To each one of these conditions, as 
fully comprehended in the penalty of death de- 
nounced against sin, every sinner of the human race 
is exposed. He is liable to have the sentence of 
death executed upon him, in every one of these as- 
pects, in exact proportion, as to the measure of its 
relative severity, as comparing the case of one sin- 
ner with another, to the demerit of his offences. 
As a sinner, he already lies under the condemnation, 
and only awaits the full execution of the entire sen- 
tence, because God does not desire him to perish, 
but would rather he should turn and live. Under 
each aspect of the penalty denounced against him 
for his sins, is involved all the sorrows and all the 
anguish which the very vilest can ever incur or en- 
dure ; and he may so run to the most terrible excess 
of riot, that the depth of his pollution and spiritual 
death, the anguish and degradation of his physical 
existence, and the temporal death which will close 
it, and the eternal agonies of his soul and body in 
hell, when the second death shall swallow him up 
for ever — may make any sinner, who now least ex- 
pects it, a monument of eternal horror. As sinners, 
we are actually, to every moral intent, dead in tres- 
passes and in sins ; as sinners, we are actually dying 
daily, as to every physical intent ; as sinners, we 
have not yet incurred the irreversible sentence of 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 269 



the second death, simply because our souls and our 
bodies are not yet separated by the stroke of tem- 
poral death. To add to all the terrors of such a 
condition, it is absolutely remediless by all human 
means ; nay, even according to any human concep- 
tion ; and the interposition of God himself is liable 
to conditions resulting from his own glorious being, 
and from the very nature of his relations to his 
fallen creatures, which appal human reason, and 
crush the wildest human hopes. We have not only 
incurred this death — we have not only deserved it — 
but our destiny is cast under a divine administra- 
tion, in which there is an absolute necessity for that 
which is deserved to be done ; an unalterable deter- 
mination to inflict that which is incurred. 

Thus are we undone ; thus are we sold under sin ; 
thus are we shut up under the law. All behind us 
is shame ; all within us and around us is darkness ; 
all before us is terror. And now it is, through all 
this gloom, and above all this despair, that heavenly 
accents fall upon our trembling hearts : " Come unto 
me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest!" And then the majestic utter- 
ance, before which hell and the grave tremble, bursts 
over our troubled souls : " He that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whoso- 
ever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die !" 
And then the sublime and consoling appeal, at once 
to our reason and our faith : " The first man, Adam, 
was made a living soul ; he was of the earth, earthy; 
as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; 
and ye have borne the image of the earthy. But the 
last Adam w^as made a quickening spirit ; he is the 



270 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

Lord from heaven; as is the heavenly, such are 
they also that are heavenly ; and ye shall also bear 
the image of the heavenly." (Matt. xi. 28 ; John 
xi. 25, 26 ; 1 Cor. xv. 45—9). " Behold the new and 
living way ! He who knew no sin hath been made 
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness 
of God in him. Jesus Christ hath abolished death, 
and hath brought life and immortality to light 
through the gospel." (2 Cor. v. 21.; 2 Tim. i. 10.) 

Now, then, standing in the very centre of the 
plan of salvation, we are prepared, as we look in all 
directions through the unsearchable riches of God's 
grace, to appreciate with clearness the sense in 
which Christ is our life. And knowing that all that 
was lost through the first Adam is more than reco- 
vered through the last, and that where sin hath 
abounded and reigned unto death, grace shall much 
more abound and reign through righteousness unto 
eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, we may, 
with a firm hand, take up and unravel the thread of 
our sad destiny as sinners; and, as we retrace the 
points of our condemnation unto death, develope 
that life of our souls, of our bodies, and of both 
united to all eternity, which, though we be dead, is 
hid with Christ in God. 

And, First, of Christ, as the life of our souls. — If 
you would either see or enter into the kingdom of 
God — if you would comprehend or possess the divine 
life — you must be born again. This is the simplest, 
the most elemental principle of spiritual religion. 
Do not marvel at it, said Christ to Nicodemus, for it 
is the first and the clearest part of all that portion 
of the mystery of Christ which is developed in this 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 271 

world ; and the comprehension and reception of this 
earthly part lie at the foundation of our ability to 
comprehend and to possess all its heavenly parts. 
Do you not perceive ? You are dead in sin : but 
God so loved the world that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life. As Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, that all who looked 
upon it might live, so is the. Son of Man lifted up, a 
sacrifice for sin, that a divine Saviour, crucified for 
us, might become the specific object of that saving 
faith by which, being united to him, we obtain eter- 
nal life. For, by our union with him, he bears our 
sins in his own body on the tree, and offers up to 
divine justice a full satisfaction for them all. Now, 
then, can God be just and justify those who believe 
in Jesus Christ. But still further — this offering up 
by Christ of himself for the redemption of his people 
hath wrought far deeper than any outward work, 
even for the pardon of sin. That which is spirit 
can be born only of the Spirit; and your spirit is 
dead, in the only sense in which a spirit can die ; it 
is corrupt, depraved, alienated from God. The life 
inherited from the living soul, Adam, is utterly for- 
feited and polluted, and is incapable of being healed 
again any more for ever — infinitely incapable of re- 
creating itself. But there is a power adequate to 
this new creation ; and there is, as has been already 
shown, a ground and a cause adequate to justify it. 
The eternal love of God is cause enough, and the 
infinite sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ, is ground 
enough; and it is plain enough, that if we could 
live at all by reason of our connection with that first 



272 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

Adam, who was only a living soul, we may also live 
a new and better life by reason of our connection 
with the last Adam, who is a life giving spirit. A 
spiritual power, sent down from heaven, is therefore 
expressly declared by Christ to be the efficient 
agency in our new creation; and this is true, without 
exception, concerning every one that is born again. 
Because God has loved us with an unchangeable 
love, Christ has redeemed us with his most precious 
blood; and the divine Spirit of life covenanted in 
that blood, and purchased by it, sets us free from 
the power of sin and death, opens our eyes, and turns 
us from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God, that we may receive forgiveness of 
sins and inheritance amongst them which are sanc- 
tified by faith that is in Christ. As the wind blow- 
eth where it listeth, so this free Spirit, sovereign as 
it is divine, cometh and goeth, not by mortal con- 
trol ; but so cometh and goeth as for ever to justify 
and honour Christ ; for ever to condemn the world 
for its darkness and its evil deeds ; for ever to com- 
fort and bless all the children of the light and the 
truth ; for ever to manifest his special presence 
while he abides, and leave ineffaceable proofs of his 
work when it is done. (John iii. 1 — 21.) 

Verily — verily — is the reiterated assurance of 
Christ ; marvel not — marvel not — his earnest com- 
mand. Why should we doubt — why distrust God ? 
This doctrine of a spiritual and supernatural regen- 
eration is not only distinctly and continually asserted 
throughout the Scriptures, as the very foundation of 
the life of God in our souls, but it underlies every 
portion of God's dealings with the human race, both 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 273 

in time and eternity, as those dealings are explained 
to us in his holy Word. When we speak of the fall 
cf man, we utter we know not what, unless we in- 
tend to signify that man has lost the image of God 
and needs to be restored to it. When we dilate on 
the whole work of Christ, in his estate of humilia- 
tion, we rob that tremendous dispensation of all its 
significance the moment we lose sight of the condi- 
tion of man, as helpless and depraved, and the ne- 
cessity of a divine intervention to save him from 
perdition. When we speak of the entire work of 
the Holy Ghost, we utter sheer nonsense, unless we 
mean that man needs, and that God has provided, in 
the agency of that Spirit, the effectual means of his 
moral renovation. When we think of God as the 
moral ruler and final judge of a race of sinners, we 
have no alternative but to admit the universal de- 
struction of the whole race, or to admit the existence 
of some divine and efficacious mode of restoring a 
sinful soul to God. When we contemplate our race 
as rational creatures, having any souls at all, no 
matter how sinful those souls may be, it is the 
merest absurdity to speak of any regeneration for 
them that is not purely spiritual; and when we 
survey them as helpless creatures, morally helpless 
through their depravity, though still spiritual crea- 
tures, every thing short of supernatural aid is a 
mere trifling with their despair. Every part of the 
plan of salvation revealed in the Scriptures involves 
the idea of a supernatural and spiritual regeneration 
of the soul of man ; and every fact upon which that 
glorious plan rests, and every issue to which it 
points, is contradicted and rendered nugatory the 

19 



274 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

moment we reject the doctrine of the Holy Ghost 
in its divine fulness. And then, to crown all, and 
as if to set in the most awful light God's estimate 
of the necessity under which we lie, to perish if we 
are not born again, and of the clearness with which 
that necessity is revealed to men, he forewarns us 
that the sin against the Holy Ghost is one for whose 
pardon we need not pray, for it will never be for- 
given! Yet, beyond all doubt, a low appreciation 
of the work of God's Spirit in the hearts of the chil- 
dren of men lies at the root of most of the heresies 
that now dishonour and deface the nominal Church 
of God, arid is the cause of most of the deadness and 
unfruitfulness of the true followers of Christ. Be- 
lief in the efficacy of forms and ceremonies, confi- 
dence in the power of rites and ordinances, bigotted 
advocacy of errors and delusions, daring rejection 
of saving truths, growing indifference to instructive 
and pungent ministrations, aversion to strictness in 
doctrine and in life, mournful departures from 
simplicity and spirituality, shallow interpretations 
of God's word, increase of ostentation and laxity in 
all religious things, and wide spread restlessness, 
commotion, and love of carnal excitement in spiritual 
matters ; all these, and how many other sorrowful 
proofs rise upon every side, to attest that the work 
of the Spirit is not cherished amongst men, and that 
Christ is not the life of their souls in that exalted 
sense which the Scriptures inculcate, and which 
other times have witnessed. It is the Spirit that 
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. (John vi. 
43—65.) 

Still, the life of God in the soul remains the fun- 



275 

damental necessity of every renewed heart, as it is 
the first and simplest element of practical Christi- 
anity ; and in connection with the aspect of it pre- 
sented in my text, there are several things fur- 
ther which ought to be briefly suggested, before I 
pass from this topic. You will note, in the first 
place, the peculiar turn of the apostle's thought. 
He does not content himself w r ith saying, that we 
have a life derived from Christ, nor yet that Christ 
has bestowed on us a life essentially like his own ; 
but he mounts to the loftiest height, and declares 
that Christ is himself our life ! Christ is found in 
his people, the hope of glory. In receiving, accept- 
ing, and relying upon him, there is a lofty and hal- 
lowed sense in which they are nourished by him. I 
am, said he, the bread of life ! (John vi. 48.) Be- 
side all that Christ has uttered — and he spake as 
never man spake ; beside all that he hath done for 
us — and he hath done more than it has entered into 
our hearts to conceive ; there is Christ himself, the 
friend, the teacher, the master, the Saviour, the 
very life of our souls ! Again : you are to remem- 
ber that this abolishing of our spiritual death by 
Christ, and this regeneration of our souls by his 
Spirit, is the condition not only of all other and 
further mercies to be received through him, but, in 
part, constitutes our very capacity to enjoy any of 
them aright, and the chief of them at all. The 
carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not sub- 
ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 
Without form and without comeliness ; or the chief- 
est amongst ten thousand, and altogether lovely ; 
one or other of these two is the only view we can 



276 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

take of him. One is the view of a dead soul, hast- 
ening to perdition, and fit only for it. The other 
is the view of a living soul, renewed in the image 
of the invisible God, and meet to partake of the 
inheritance of the saints in light. Once more : you 
will hear in mind that the Lord has said, this spi- 
ritual regeneration is an earthly, in contradistinction 
to a heavenly, thing. It must occur, if it occurs at 
all, while you are in the flesh. The life of Jesus, 
if it is ever manifested in us, " must be made mani- 
fest in our body" — " in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor. iv. 
10, 11.) Temporal death puts an end for ever, to 
every hope of impenitent men. From the instant 
that the soul and the body are separated, the expec- 
tation of the wicked shall perish. Whatsoever thy 
hand findeth to do, do with thy might ; for there is 
no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in 
the grave, whither thou goest. (Eccl. ix. 10.) Still 
further : you may rejoice in the divine assurance, 
that the gift of this new and imperishable life in 
Jesus Christ, draws after it every other blessing, and 
every other benefit of the covenant of grace, in so 
far as is needful to bring you off more than con- 
querors, through him that loved us. Many toils — 
many tears — fightings without — fears within — trou- 
bles on every hand — fierce temptations — fearful 
backslidings — the malice of hell — the plagues of 
your heart ! It is no light thing to make such sin- 
ners angels of light. Nevertheless it can be done. 
It has been done. It will be done again. If when 
we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the 
death of his Son, much more being reconciled we 
shall be saved by his life ! For I am persuaded that 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 2 i j 

neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God which 
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. v. 10, and viii. 
38, 39.) And finally : you may take continual 
comfort, and make continual progress in that new 
life into which you have been begotten by the Holy 
Ghost ; more and more of the knowledge of God ; 
a conformity unto him, greater and greater ; an in- 
sight into his word, and into divine things, deeper 
and deeper ; a love of Christ more and more fervent ; 
a more rooted abhorrence of all sin ; increasing joy 
in the Holy Ghost ; compassion for sinners, tenderer 
every day ; hardness borne as becomes a good soldier 
of the cross ; the good fight of faith manfully waged ; 
the cross borne aloft through our pilgrimage ; Christ, 
and him crucified, more and more the life of our 
souls ! For the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the 
whole family in heaven and earth is named, doth 
grant, according to the riches of his glory, that you 
may be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the 
inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts 
by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in 
love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, 
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height, and to know the love of Christ, which pass- 
eth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the ful- 
ness of God. Therefore, unto him that is able to do 
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, 
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him 
be glory in the Church, by Christ Jesus, throughout 
all ages, world without end. (Eph. iii. 10 — 21.) 



278 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

Secondly — Of Christ as the life of our mortal na- 
ture. I remind you that the whole doctrine of 
Christ is matter of pure revelation. It is only from 
God himself that we can know what Christ is, and 
what Christ does. All this is not less true concern- 
ing every portion of Christ's work in us, and every 
part of our relations to him, than concerning the es- 
sential truths which relate to his own being, and to 
his relations to the Godhead, and to the whole uni- 
verse, of which he is the central object. 

Temporal death, as we call the separation of the 
human soul and body, is to the human race the di- 
rect result of the entrance of sin into the world. 
God not only forewarned Adam of a fact infinitely 
certain, in the nature of that dependence in which 
the whole creation stood, but denounced to him the 
ordained penalty of transgression, when he told him 
that in the day he should eat of the tree of .the 
knowledge of good and evil, a dying he should die." 
From that moment he and all his race should endure 
the power, and incur the judgment of death in their 
bodies, as well as pollution in their souls ; and start- 
ing from that point of deliberate rejection of God, 
dying they should die, man after man, and genera- 
tion after generation, as long as the curse of a vio- 
lated covenant, and the penalty of a broken law, 
worked together with the power of sin in the ruins 
of their fallen nature. And then, after the work of 
ruin was begun, and to prevent the immortal con- 
tinuance of death itself upon the earth, " lest he put 
forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, 
and live for ever," the Lord God drove out the man 
from the garden of Eden, and placed a cherubim and a 



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ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 279 

flaming sword to keep the' way of the tree of life. 
(Gen. ii. 17, and hi. 22 — 24.) Expounding and en- 
forcing these solemn truths, prophets and apostles 
have argued the whole matter with unusual fulness, 
and made it clear above most of the wonders of our 
being. By one man, even Adam, sin entered into 
the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed 
upon all men, for that all have sinned. That offence 
was an act of deliberate disobedience ; and that death 
which followed it, was not only a condemnation, but 
a judgment. And if we shall say that death reigned 
from Adam to Moses, that is, before the giving of the 
law, and that sin is not imputed when there is no 
law, and, therefore, death cannot be either the fruit 
or the penalty of sin ; the divine answer is, that we 
have just perverted the facts and drawn an inference 
that is precisely opposite to the one which those facts 
imply. For as death is both the fruit and the pen- 
alty of sin, God being the judge, the reign of death, 
before the law was given, proves that there is a law 
deeper than that given by Moses, even that cove- 
nant of works, under whose curse we lie, and that 
law of our very being, created in the image of God, 
and that law of eternal order, and fitness, and truth, 
which is involved in the very being of God, and to 
which he has made the human conscience respon- 
sive ; and that the violation of each one of these 
primeval laws is, in a proper sense, sin, and is im- 
puted. Again, if we answer further, that death 
reigned, even from the beginning, over those who 
never sinned after the similitude of Adam's trans- 
gression ; that is, over those who never wilfully trans- 
gressed the known law of God, and, therefore, this 



280 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

plainly shows that death is neither the fruit nor the 
penalty of sin, the divine response is, that herein 
we abuse ourselves by a false idea of sin, as before 
by a false idea of law; for the fundamental truth 
being, that death is the result of sin, simply, abso- 
lutely and universally, in the absence of known law 
and deliberate transgression, death proves the ex- 
istence of that which is properly sin, and which God 
will impute ; namely, sin in our very being, original 
and congenital with us, derived from the first parent 
of our race, as its natural and its covenanted head, 
in whom we fell. And again, if we now turn to at- 
tack the very nature of such an order of things, and 
urge that it cannot be after this fashion, because it 
involves that the sin of Adam should be imputed to 
his race ; that through the offence of one man judg- 
ment should come upon all men to condemnation ; 
that for one offence so terrible and universal ruin 
should occur; and that by the fall and death of one 
man death should pass upon all men; the divine an- 
swer is, that as before we deceived ourselves as to 
the nature of sin, and the nature of law, so here we 
delude ourselves about the nature of God's relations 
to his creatures, and attack the very foundations of di- 
vine grace. For the righteousness of Christ must be 
imputed to his people ; the obedience and sacrifice of 
Christ must lie at the foundation of that free gift which 
came upon all men to justification of life ; and by one 
man, even Jesus Christ, and by one sacrifice of him- 
self, grace must reign through righteousness unto eter- 
nal life ; or else, where sin has abounded it must con- 
tinue to abound for ever, and where death has reigned 
it must continue to reign eternally. Kom. v. 12 — 21. 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 



281 



Taking their start from this point, the Scriptures 
develope the whole dispensation of man. For 
awhile he abides here on earth, his ordinary condi- 
tion being that of an immortal but sinful soul united 
to a mortal and sinful body, and his best estate that 
of a partially sanctified soul united to that mortal 
and sinful body. His soul may be regenerated, and 
to a certain degree sanctified, while in union with 
the body ; and this change, as has been shown, must 
occur during that union here below, or never occur 
at all. By and by he dies. His soul and his body 
are separated ; the latter returning to the dust, as it 
was — the former to God who gave it. In their 
separated state, regenerated souls pass at death into 
the presence and fruition of God; and impenitent 
souls pass to a place of torment. Of the whole 
human race two men only, Enoch and Elijah, have 
as yet escaped the stroke of death ; and at the se- 
cond coming of Christ, his people who are then alive 
will also escape that stroke. (1 Cor. xv. 31 ; 1 Thess. 
iv. 15 — 17.) But that second coming of Christ will 
cut short this dispensation of man upon earth, and 
bring death itself to its second great arbitrement. 
The dead will arise. A resurrection of life — a re- 
surrection of damnation. This is the end of tem- 
poral death. The souls and the bodies of men are 
united once more, and so united will undergo the 
final judgment. (1 Cor. xv.) 

It is said of our divine Redeemer, that in order 
that he might be a merciful and faithful High 
Priest, it behooved him to be made like unto his 
brethren in all things. (Heb. ii. 17.) In every part, 
therefore, of this human dispensation, this resem- 



282 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

blance exists to the utmost degree possible. He has 
taken a true human soul, and a true human body, 
into ineffable and eternal union with his divine 
nature. The man Jesus of Nazareth was as really 
a man as any man that ever was born of woman, 
though supernaturally made in the womb of the 
virgin Mary, and so not begotten under the cove- 
nant of works, and thus not polluted by original sin. 
He tabernacled amongst men — tempted in all points 
like as they are, and bearing all those temporal 
sorrows which the Scriptures embrace under the 
wide appellation of death — so far as that was possi- 
ble to one free from sin. Being sinless, he was, so 
to speak, naturally free from temporal death, in its 
proper sense, whether as the fruit or the penalty of 
sin. Though he was crucified, yet it is also true 
that he laid down his life, of which there was no 
power in the universe that was able to rob him. 
(John x. 18.) Like his brethren, who are to be 
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
he was transfigured upon the mount. Like his 
brethren, who endure the stroke of death, he also 
gave up the ghost. Like his brethren, whose sepa- 
rate souls dwell with God, while their bodies sleep 
in the grave, his separate human soul was in the 
bosom of God, while his human body laid three days 
in the sepulchre. Like his brethren, who are to 
arise and shine, he first of all arose from the dead. 
And so we may not doubt that the parallel will 
complete itself utterly; and his brethren like him 
will yet walk the earth in their resurrection bodies, 
and then ascend like him in glory to the highest 
heavens ! (Rev. xx. 4, 6, 15.) 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 283 

Now, then, I may group together, as under the 
preceding head, several topics too essentially con- 
nected with the subject matter of my text, to be 
passed by even in the briefest exposition of the sub- 
ject. And, first : you will perceive how absolutely 
our life depends on Christ, and how completely the 
whole scheme of the resurrection rests upon him 
and terminates in him. Since the fall, we are as 
essentially mortal as we are depraved. In him we 
not only live and move and have our being ; by him 
and for him not only were all things created, and 
by him do all things consist ; but, since by man came 
death, by man came also the resurrection of the 
dead ; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
all be made alive. (1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.) Except by 
the power of Christ, and for the sake of Christ, there 
is no reason why the human race, or any individual 
of it, should live for a single moment, or receive a 
single mercy while they live ; or why, having died, 
they should rise again from the dead; just as there 
is no reason why any human being should be either 
regenerated or sanctified, except for the sake and by 
the work of Christ ; for to this end Christ both died, 
and rose, and revived, that he might be the Lord 
both of the dead and living. (Rom. xiv. 9.) Again: 
It is very obvious from what has just been said, how 
fundamental to the whole theory of Christianity, and 
therefore to the whole destiny of man, is the fact of 
the resurrection of Christ himself. To establish this 
fact is one main end of all the Gospels ; to illustrate 
its bearing is one capital object in all the discourses 
of the apostles and inspired evangelists that have 
come down to us ; and to settle it in our hearts as 



284 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

a truth, at once infinitely certain and infinitely preg- 
nant, is the aim of perhaps a larger portion of the 
New Testament Scriptures than is devoted to any 
other single point ; for if Christ did not rise from 
the dead, then we shall never rise; then is our 
preaching vain, and your faith vain ; then are the 
apostles false witnesses of God, and we are yet in 
our sins, and all they which are fallen asleep in 
Christ are perished. But if Christ, who is the image 
of the invisible God, and the first born of every crea- 
ture, has risen from the dead and become the first 
fruits of them that slept, then it is certain that in 
him shall all be made alive, every man in his own 
order, and next after Christ himself they that are 
Christ's at his coming. (1 Cor. xv. 3 — 23.) Still 
further : though the union of the divine and hu- 
man natures in the person of Christ, and his death 
and resurrection, establish the unalterable certainty 
of the utter destruction of temporal death and the 
resurrection of the whole human race, yet the resur- 
rection of the righteous, and the resurrection of the 
wicked, will be infinitely diverse in their manner 
and in their results. It is of the bodies of men only 
that the Scriptures predicate the idea, and proclaim 
the fact, of a resurrection. Death and resurrection 
will produce on the bodies of the righteous a change 
so far analogous as is possible to the change wrought 
upon their souls by regeneration and sanctification ; 
and they will in like manner produce upon the bodies 
of the wicked a change analogous to that produced 
in their souls, by the total and final withdrawal of 
the Holy Spirit from them, and their own complete 
and irreversible rejection of Christ and salvation. 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 285 

There will be a resurrection of life and a resurrec- 
tion of damnation. In the latter, the wicked will 
rise to shame and everlasting contempt ; monuments 
of dishonour, of corruption and of the second death. 
In the former, the righteous will arise to incorrup- 
tion, immortality and eternal glory ; monuments of 
the grace of God and of the triumph of Christ over 
his last enemy. (Eev. xx. 4 — 15.) Once more: in 
the very nature of the whole case, as the Scriptures 
open it to us, the necessity of our enduring what we 
do, is clearly set forth. God has provided for us an 
immortal existence, not here, but in another and 
higher estate. For his own glory, and for our 
blessedness, the scheme of redemption is so arranged 
as to operate upon us partly while our souls and 
bodies are united, partly after they are separated, 
and partly, after they are united again. In the first 
period of its operation, it proposes to do nothing di- 
rectly for our mortal nature, beyond what is involved 
in the bearing of its provisions for our immortal part 
upon our mortal during its pilgrimage. Therefore 
Ave suffer, and weep, and die. Jesus himself suf- 
fered, and wept, and died. Yet even in these con- 
ditions the grace of God presses to the very limit of 
the possibility which his own glorious goodness and 
wisdom had established. Our sufferings are made 
the means of drawing us to Christ and perfecting us 
in holiness ; our tears are wiped away as they flow, 
by the hand of God himself; all the struggles through 
which we pass give greater vigour to the life of God 
within us ; when we come to die, our very death is 
precious in the sight of God, and the grave yields to 
us a glorious victory ; and then comes the resurrec- 



286 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

tion, to own and crown us heirs of light! (Psalms 
xxxvii ; Kom. viii.) And, finally : from the begin- 
ning to the end of all, how completely is Christ our 
life ; and how wonderfully is the foundation of all 
laid, and the surprising result brought about ! In 
such a world as this, what would we be without a 
throne of grace to which we could flee ? Amidst 
the afflictions and temptations of life, what are we 
without divine support ? Under the burden of sin, 
and the doom of impending death, and the darkness 
of a fathomless eternity, whither can we turn with- 
out a Saviour ? But who would ever have thought, 
with hearts full of enmity to God, of asking him tc 
save us, by the sacrifice of his only begotten Son ? 
Who would have conceived the idea of the incarna- 
tion, or, after it, that of redemption by the blood of 
Christ ? Who would have imagined the stupendous 
concatenation of removing the sting of death by 
removing the virulence of sin ; of getting rid of the 
guilt of sin by satisfying the law which denounced 
it ; of silencing the law itself, by enduring its curse 
and penalty ; of conquering death, which the law 
denounced, by entering into the consuming and piti- 
less grave ? In such a case, such a plan, with such 
a result ! Oh ! the depth of the riches both of the 
wisdom and knowledge of God ! Oh ! the unsearch- 
able riches of Christ ! (1 Cor. xv. 54—58 ; Eph. 
iii. 8—21.) 

Thirdly, of Christ as the life of our eternal being. 
The Scriptures hardly recognize what we ordinarily 
call life, as an estate worthy of that name. The 
pollution of our moral nature, the darkness of our 
rational faculties, and the perishing and suffering 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 287 

condition of our physical man, make up an estate 
not so much of life as of living death ; the resur- 
rection of the wicked is expressly distinguished from 
a resurrection of life, by being called a resurrection 
of damnation ; and the final estate of the impeni- 
tent is denominated their second death — the doom 
of Satan, and of all who are deceived by him, of 
u the beast and the false prophet," and of all whose 
names are not found written in the Book of Life, 
(Rev. xx. 10 — 15.) God alone hath life in himself; 
and the Lord Jesus, claiming for himself this divine 
prerogative, and the right, at his own good pleasure, 
to bestow life upon others, expressly sets it forth as 
a proof of his own Godhead. Himself the way, the 
truth, and the life, it was his express errand upon 
earth to bestow eternal life upon as many as the 
Father had given him; and this, saith he, is life 
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. (John 
v. 26, and xvii. 3.) I have already traced the ope- 
ration of this incorruptible life in man, up to the 
period of the resurrection. It remains, under the 
present topic, to indicate briefly its after course. 

God hath appointed a day, in the which he will 
judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom 
he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance 
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the 
dead. (Acts xvii. 31.) This, you will observe, is the 
pith of the crushing argument why men ought to 
repent of their sins, addressed by the great apostle 
of the Gentiles to the Epicurean and Stoic philoso- 
phers in the Areopagus at Athens ; the last men to 
hear, and the last place in which to utter such an 



288 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

appeal, unless there was that in it to which the hu- 
man conscience responds, and on which the human 
reason may rest. Somewhat dilated the argument 
might run thus : You are sensible of your ill desert, 
and that you ought to be held accountable for it; the 
proper result of that state of mind is repentance ; but 
this is the more urgent when you consider that your 
inward sense of ill desert and accountability is but 
the shadow of your impending destiny, for the true 
God has in fact appointed not only a time to judge 
you, but also the judge, even Jesus Christ, whom I 
preach unto you ; and of these truths he has given 
you absolute assurance in the resurrection of Jesus, 
which resurrection not only I, and hundreds besides, 
still live to attest, but which the power of the divine 
truths I proclaim, and the power of the eternal 
Spirit accompanying those truths in your souls, 
which truths and w r hich Spirit alike proceed from 
Christ, enforces with an intimate and divine demon- 
stration. Probably not one of these sceptics and fa- 
talists had ever, before he saw Paul, had any distinct 
idea of any single one of all the great elements of 
this universal and overwhelming argument, delivered 
that day on Mars' hill. Natural enough, therefore, 
was it that some mocked, and that others doubted ; 
and most natural of all that the link they struck at 
in the argument was the one they knew least about, 
and on which all turned — the resurrection of the 
dead ; for even they could see, and that on the first 
hearing, that if that were true, all the rest must 
needs follow. How r beit, Dionysius the Areopagite, 
and certain men beside, and a woman named Dama- 
ris, and others with her, clave unto Paul and be- 



289 

lieved ; God thus attesting that his servant had 
divine warrant for what he uttered. And therein, 
through eighteen centuries, down to this very hour, 
the proclamation of this impending judgment — of its 
divine demonstration — and of its eternal issues — has 
been the burden of the message of Christ's servants 
to a ruined w r orld. To it we are now come. 

Let us stand first in the midst of the just, that we 
may see how completely Christ, in this tremendous 
period of their being, is to every one of them eternal 
life. Here are the redeemed of every race — every 
age. Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs — all are 
there. They who had seen from afar the promised 
Messiah ; they who had followed him as he went in 
and out upon earth, despised and rejected of men ; 
they who had heard and believed, through all suc- 
ceeding ages, the sound of him, as it went out through 
the whole world, not one of them is missing. The 
throng that had fought the good fight; the hosts 
that had passed through great tribulation ; the mul- 
titudes who had sung the song of rejoicing, and the 
still greater multitudes who had wept all along the 
ascent of Zion ; pilgrims who had counted their 
years by centuries ; pilgrims whose days had been 
few and evil ; pilgrims snatched from the evil to 
come, who had seen of earth only the valley of 
the shadow of death ; multitudes — multitudes — thou- 
sand thousands — ten thousand times ten thousand ! 
Here and there are scattered those who never tasted 
death ; they had been changed in a moment at the 
coming of the Lord. The rest had been with Christ 
in glory, and their sleeping dust had heard the 
trump of God ; and now they stand arrayed in glo- 

20 



290 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

rious, spiritual bodies. Mortal has put on immor- 
tality ; death is swallowed up in victory ! And yet 
it is judgment, eternal judgment, to which they have 
come. And there are thrones, and dominions, and 
principalities, and powers, and heavenly hierarchies 
— all the exalted spirits of the upper world. And in 
the midst of all — enthroned in light that is inacces- 
sible and full of glory — one like unto the Son of 
man — the Judge of quick and dead ! Think of Pi- 
late's bar — where he once stood and was condemned, 
and then see him seated on the throne of the uni- 
verse, with all that universe contains of pure and 
good, waiting with adoring trust to hear his judg- 
ments. Think of his crown of thorns, and then 
behold the diadems which are cast down before him, 
in token of exulting love that will not be repressed I 
Think of the cruel mockings, the unpitied agony of 
Calvary, and then listen to the triumphant alleluias 
that arise around his throne, and, mounting with 
eternal melody, strain after strain, from countless 
millions, re-echo from the highest spheres, and swell 
beyond the farthest star ! Alleluia ! salvation, and 
glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our 
God ! Alleluia ! King of Kings, and Lord of Lords ! 
(Matt. xxv. 31 ; Eev. v. 9—13 ; xv. 3 ; xix. 1—16.) 
Yes, it is a judgment, but a judgment of the just 
made perfect. Of the countless millions who have 
part in that resurrection of life, there is not one who 
has not been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and 
been made a king and a priest unto God. (Rev. i. 
5 — 6.) It is not a judgment to ascertain whether 
they will be saved or not — for they are saved al- 
ready ; nor to ascertain whether they are worthy of 



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ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 291 

eternal life — for every one of them has already re- 
ceived it at the hands of Christ. Most of them have 
been with him in glory; the rest were changed, and 
caught up to him, at his second coming. But still 
the Books are opened — that Book which is the rule 
of eternal judgment — God's blessed Word, which we 
have in our hands to-day ; the Books of convincing 
testimon}^ in which is written the whole record of 
our lives ; the Book, also, in which are set down the 
names of the redeemed — the Lamb's Book of Life ! 
One by one the story of every saved sinner is traced. 
All the secrets of his heart are revealed — all the ac- 
tions of his life are recounted — all the greatness of 
his ill desert established and confessed. But along 
with all this, the dealings of Christ with his soul — 
the commencement, the progress, the consummation, 
of the grace of God towards him — the life of God 
within him. And then his glorified Saviour, the 
God-man, proclaims, as King of Kings, the result he 
has reached as eternal Judge, and the precise method 
of that result in that individual case. Come, ye 
blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world ! Here is 
the mansion you are to inhabit for evermore; here 
is your seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb ; 
here is the light with which you are to shine to all 
eternity ; here is the service in which you are to be 
glorified for ever and ever ! Enter into the joy of 
your Lord ; inherit eternal life ! And then new al- 
leluias arise from all the armies of Heaven! And 
so another exhibition of God's method of grace and 
salvation, and renewed alleluias. And then another, 
and another, and another; onward, and onward, as 



292 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

the eternal cycles pass over a universe in which time 
no longer exists to be measured ; until every mani- 
festation of God's grace in every redeemed sinner 
shall be exhibited to all the angels of God, and to 
all the just made perfect; and until the fact and the 
method of salvation, in the case of every saved sin- 
ner, shall be judicially ascertained, and the position 
of each one in the heavenly hosts proclaimed from 
the throne of God, in the hearing of all worlds ! Oh 1 
what majesty to God ; what blessedness to the re- 
deemed ; what glory with Christ their life in this 
first period of their eternal being, as they reign with 
him in the heavenly Jerusalem, and expatiate 
through a universe wherein he has made all things 
new ! (Matt. xxv. ; 2 Pet. iii. ; Rev. xx.) 

And where are the impenitent ? David has told 
us long ago that sinners shall not stand in the con- 
gregation, nor the ungodly in the judgment of the 
righteous. (Psalm i. 5.) Christ himself has said, that 
when he comes in glory he will separate the blessed 
from the accursed, as a shepherd separates his sheep 
from his goats, and then will judge the righteous 
first, and afterwards doom the accursed. (Matt, 
xxv. 32.) "We are abundantly informed that there 
is a first and a second resurrection ; that there is an 
eternal order, both in the resurrection and the judg- 
ment, by which the triumphant acquittal of the re- 
deemed precedes the doom of the wicked ; and by 
which the rest of the dead live not again till the 
thousand years are fulfilled, during which those who 
have part in the first resurrection live and reign with 
Christ. (1 Cor. xv. 23. Rom. xx. 3 — 6.) And now, 
when the hour is come for the Lord Jesus to be re- 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 293 

vealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flam- 
ing fire, to take vengeance on them that know not 
God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, they shall be punished with everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord, and from 
the glory of his power. (2 Thess. i. 7 — 8.) Now is 
the hour fully come for fire to come down from God 
out of heaven and destroy all the wicked ; for hell 
to give up the dead that are in it ; for Satan to be 
cast into the lake of fire ; for death and hell to per- 
ish ; for the enemies of God to be tormented day and 
night for ever and ever ; for the second death to be- 
gin its interminable reign ! (Rev. xx.) As we con- 
template this scene of horror, and bear in mind that 
we have deserved to incur its eternal woe, and will 
escape it only because Christ is our life, we ought to 
have some foretaste of the thrill with which the 
hosts of God turn away from the abyss and shout 
hosannah to the Lamb ! 

There is another point. The Scriptures teach us, 
with abundant clearness, that although every part 
of the dispensation of God's grace has direct relation 
to the person, the work and the glory of Christ, yet 
Christ occupies, in many respects, a different posi- 
tion under each successive development of the whole 
plan of God's infinite mercy. During his personal 
ministry on earth, he occupied a position materially 
dissimilar to any he had ever occupied before ; and 
so now, seated at the right hand of God, his position 
is widely different from what it had ever been before 
his infinite exaltation. In like manner, when the 
dispensation of grace, strictly so called,, is ended by 
the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of 



294 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

the righteous, a new aspect of his work and his rela- 
tion to his people manifests itself; and again an- 
other, in all that constitutes the judgment and ac- 
quittal of the righteous, and the doom of the wicked. 
After these things, what will follow? Let us hear 
what the Holy Ghost saith. In his great discourse 
on the day of Pentecost, under which three thousand 
souls believed, and in his second mighty exposition 
a little after, in the temple, under which five thou- 
sand men believed, the apostle Peter carries us far 
into these sublime events. The heavens must re- 
ceive Jesus Christ, said he, until the times of the 
restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by 
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world 
began ; and he urged that great testimony of David : 
" The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right 
hand until I make thy foes thy footstool." (Acts ii. 
34, and iii. 21.) That exaltation and that reign of 
Christ was not, therefore, the final dispensation ; it 
was a dispensation and a reign until such a time and 
such events. I suppose the second coming of Christ, 
and the resurrection of the righteous dead, will de- 
velope what was wrapped up in that until. Again : 
in the revelation of Jesus Christ, amongst the infi- 
nite blessings and glories promised to those who 
shall come off conquerors, the crowning promise is : 
" To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am 
set down with my Father on Ms throne." (Rev. iii. 
21.) Here is a very broad distinction between the 
throne of the Father and that of the glorified God- 
man ; and a very clear indication that, as yet, the 
latter had not been ascended: that until before 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 295 

spoken of stood between the two thrones ; the whole 
period, namely, from the ascension of Jesus Christ 
till his second coming. Now, of those who have 
part in the first resurrection is it expressly written, 
that they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand 
years. (Rev. xx. 4, 5.) The Lord Jesus plainly said 
to his apostles, that when the Son of Man shall sit 
in the throne of Ms glory, ye also shall sit upon 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 
(Matt. xix. 28.) And the apostle Paul, in his trea- 
tise on the resurrection, declares that the resurrec- 
tion of Christ's people, at his second coming, will be 
followed by the reign of Christ till he has put all his 
enemies under his feet, and that the last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. xv. 23, 25, 26.) 
Here, then, is another limitation, another until; and 
as we are told that death will be destroyed when 
Satan is cast into hell, and the wicked enter upon 
the second death, (Rev. xx. 10, 14,) this until is ex- 
plained to us, and a new development of the dispen- 
sation of Christ intimated to commence after the 
doom of the wicked. There remains, therefore, 
after that, another development of the eternal life 
of the blessed ; and the Scriptures briefly, but clearly, 
initiate us into the knowledge of it. 

In the passage just cited from the first epistle to 
the Corinthians, this order is declared touching the 
sublime topic of which the apostle is treating. 
First, the resurrection of Christ himself; afterward, 
who can tell how long afterward ? the second coming 
of Christ, and the resurrection of his people at that 
coming; then, when he shall have put down all 
rule, and all authority, and all power, and shall 



296 



CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 



have destroyed death, then, after that reign of the 
saints with Christ, cometh the end! (1 Cor. xv. 
23 — 26.) And then will Christ deliver up the 
kingdom to God, even the Father, (verse 24.) He 
will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, upon the 
Lamb's Book of Life, (Rev. xx. 15, and xxi. 27,) that 
glorious record containing a complete list of their 
names, and being of itself a perfect evidence of their 
redemption, their regeneration, their sanctification, 
their glorious resurrection, their acquittal in the day 
of judgment, their reign with Christ, and their 
right, through him, to inherit the eternal kingdom. 
And then shall the Son also himself be subject unto 
Him that put all things under him, that God may 
be all in all. (1 Cor. xv. 28.) And here made 
partakers of the divine nature — admitted to the 
immediate presence and full fruition of God — made 
perfectly blessed in the enjoyment of him — the 
Scriptures launch us upon this eternal and incon- 
ceivably glorious and exalted state of existence, and 
close the revelations of God ! The dispensation of 
Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer of God's elect, has 
passed through all its wondrous phases ; the king- 
dom, the power, and the glory, have all been illus- 
trated and established ; nothing remains that is not 
subject to him, except only He which did put all 
things under him (1 Cor. xv. 27) ; the end is fully 
reached, in that highest conception which mortals 
can have of it, that God is all in all ! The human 
race, too, has passed through all its revealed phases ; 
its existence upon earth ; its existence after death ; 
its existence after the resurrection; and its high 
service and enjoyment of God in glory to all eter- 



ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 297 

nity, is begun. In the broadest view it is possible 
for us to take of all Christ's work, and our own 
career and destiny, as well as in the most minute 
ind circumstantial examination we can make of 
every particular part, both of one and the other, 
nothing is so clearly and so constantly obvious, as 
that Christ is our life in the whole, and in every 
part ; the life of our spiritual nature, the life of our 
mortal being, the life of our immortal existence. 
This is the sublime and consoling truth we set out to 
elucidate by the testimony of God. 

If we desire to live under the impression which 
this divine truth ought to create, and which this 
glorious destiny requires, we have only to listen to 
what the apostle has told us in connection with the 
words of my text, to discover what is required of 
us in that great endeavour. We ought, says he, to 
seek those things which are above, and set our affec- 
tions on them, and not on things on the earth ; re- 
membering that we are dead, and that our life is hid 
with Christ in God. We ought to mortify our mem- 
bers which are upon the earth; for the lack of doing 
which, we are prone to fall into those sins, for the 
sake of which the wrath of God cometh on the chil- 
dren of disobedience, and in which we once lived 
ourselves. But now, seeing that we have put off the 
old man, with his deeds, and have put on the new 
man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the im- 
age of him that created him ; we ought continually 
to shun all evil, and pursue all good ; under the fixed 
and felt conviction, that to us Christ is all and in 
all. We ought, as the elect of God, who profess 
righteousness and who trust that God loves us, to 



298 CHRIST THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. 

put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of 
mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgive- 
ness ; striving to imitate the Lord Christ, and crown- 
ing all with that charity which is the bond of per- 
fectness. Thus may the peace of God reign in our 
grateful hearts ; thus may the Word of Christ dwell 
in us richly in all wisdom ; thus the power of the 
Lord Jesus may be shown forth in us ; thus in all 
the relations which we sustain upon earth, may we 
adorn the doctrine we profess, and honour the Lord 
whom we adore. So may we be able, by God's 
grace, to make our way good out of this, a ruined 
world, and get safely, perhaps triumphantly, through 
the sin and death that reign in it. And when Christ, 
ivho is our life, shall appear, then may we also ap- 
pear with him in glory. And when all the redeemed 
shall be presented faultless before God, and be de- 
livered up upon the Lamb's Book of Life, then may 
we too inherit the kingdom, prepared from the foun- 
dation of the world, for all the blessed of the Father ! 
Glorious hope, which maketh not ashamed ! 



FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

BY 

A. T. M'GILL, D. D. 

PROFESSOR IX THE WESTERN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ALLEGHANY, PENNA, 



For vre walk by faith, not by sight. — 2 Cor. 5 — 7. 

It is a singular fact, in the history of redemption, 
that the faculty in man, which deceived him to his 
ruin at the first, is never restored to perfect confi- 
dence this side of heaven. That faculty is sense, in 
the widest acceptation of the term, which we here 
extend to internal emotion as well as external per- 
ception. While, in the direction of ordinary life, the 
most simple and unerring of all evidence is that of 
the senses, in the great duty of dealing with God, 
in reference to the conduct, acceptance, and ever- 
lasting welfare of the soul, it is the most imperfect 
and fallacious of all reliances. Through this avenue 
sin entered, and God seems to have closed it indig- 
nantly against all further intercourse with him, 
while we continue in this evil tenement. As if it 
were some facile door, through which thieves and 
robbers once entered, and would still enter, to mar 
and spoil the house, the glorious Builder will have it 
opened no more, in spiritual communication with 
himself, until the whole building shall be taken 

(299) 



300 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

down, and reconstructed on the model of a glorious 
immortality. 

Through the senses it was that the tempter first 
invaded the soul ; " when the woman saw that the 
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to 
the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, 
she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave 
also to her husband with her, and he did eat." Now 
that eye, that ear, that touch, that taste, that sense 
of every kind is all disparaged in the remedial deal- 
ing of God ; and faith is the eye, the ear, the touch, 
the taste, the one all engrossing faculty by which 
grace renovates and rules the soul. Religion and 
the senses are divorced. These are degraded to the 
rank of handmaiden ; and never will the soul repose 
with confidence upon them more, until error and 
frailty shall have been for ever removed. The apostle 
intimates, in this connection, that we shall hereafter 
walk by sight. When appearances will no longer 
deceive us ; when the highest good will be for ever 
present to the soul ; when the senses will be glori- 
ously transformed, and made perfect in heaven, we 
shall walk by what we do see and know. But, for 
the present, wherever there is spiritual life, 

I. We walk by faith, and not by carnal sight. 
II. We walk by faith, and not by spiritual sight. 

III. We walk by faith, and not by glorified sight. 

I. "All men have not faith." There is all the 
difference between those who have this grace, and 
those who have it not, that another sense would 
make in the range of man's power and enjoyment. 
How immeasurably wider the perceptions of a blind 
man, when suddenly admitted or restored to the 



D. D. 301 

window of the eye. Where he had groped along, 
and stumbled with faltering footsteps, a wide, and 
distant, and adorned horizon bursts upon his 
view. More extended, more enchanting, more im- 
portant unspeakably, is the enlargement when God 
restores the eye of faith to the soul. It sees a 
guide, a chart, a destination, which the spiritually 
blind can never perceive. It spreads another hue 
on all it scans ; inspires new emotions, new estima- 
tions, and animates to incomparably greater speed 
the career on which it enters the soul. 

1. Sight regards only things which are seen; but 
faith, things w T hich are not seen. (2 Cor. iv. 18.) It 
could not be otherwise with maimed and defective 
nature than to seek those things only which its 
powers are fitted to perceive. We may crowd as- 
surances of divine realities upon the natural man, 
and compel his assent to the evidence that they are 
realities of momentous import, and yet he is no more 
actuated by them, in his conduct, than is the deaf 
man by all the harmonies of music. There may be 
a notional apprehension entertained with zeal. Men, 
from what they read in the Word of God, and what 
they see in the conduct of others, and what they 
love by the dint of habit, and what they fear by the 
force of conscience and superstition, may seem to 
walk at times as though divine realities were be- 
lieved, when all the while it is but sight that actu- 
ates them. Every thing short of the faith, which 
fixes a clear, and calm, and steadfast, and transform- 
ing reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, " whom, hav- 
ing not seen, we love ; in w T hom, though now we see 
him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeak- 



302 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

able and full of glory;" every thing short of the 
faith which " endures as seeing him who is invisi- 
ble/' is sight ; which gathers all its motives and ac- 
tivity from what is visible and palpable. 

2. Sight regards what is present, faith what is 
future. It is "the substance of things hoped for/' 
as well as "the evidence of things not seen." It is 
its great peculiarity, not only to displace palpable 
things in their power on the heart, by things of 
purely fiducial realization, but to grasp these as they 
lie in futurity also. It is not only impossible that 
the natural man be influenced by what is unseen, 
more than what is seen and felt, but still more, that 
he be influenced by unseen realities, in anticipation, 
more than by what is in present and actual contact 
with his feelings and desires. "Without true faith, 
to fill up the void with animating hopes of the fu- 
ture, religion, which sweeps from the soul its tem- 
poral gratifications, would be an agonizing empti- 
ness — the mosf intolerable of all conditions. All men 
would forsake it, like Demas, through love of this 
present world. Sight is always spreading enchant- 
ment over the present scene. Fast as experience 
detects the mockery of one illusion, she spreads 
another and a fresh attraction, persuading the soul, 
in spite of its sober convictions, to live as though 
its inward thought were, "this house shall continue 
for ever, this dwelling place to all generations." But 
faith unmasks the charm, and however faintly done, 
holds the future with steady and constraining influ- 
ence before us; all is disenchanted at her touch; 
the world is a wilderness ; the soul is made to come 
up from it, leaning on none of its pleasures, repos- 



A. T. m'gill, d. d. 303 

ing on none of its confidences — leaning on "the be- 
loved" alone. " But now they desire a better coun- 
try, that is an heavenly; wherefore God is not 
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath pre- 
pared for them a city." While the companions of a 
believer, like the children of Keuben, are always 
choosing their inheritance on this side of Jordan, his 
eye is onward and over to Canaan itself. While one 
takes up with this, and another with that earthly 
portion, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the 
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world 
is crucified to me, and I unto the world." 

3. Sight regards what is pleasant; faith what is 
good. It is pleasant to choose a broad and down- 
ward way through this rugged and inhospitable 
world; and to crowd the way with as large a com- 
pany as possible, where we have so many mutual 
wants and dependencies — pleasant to incur the re- 
proach or disfavour of no one in the journey, but go 
hand in hand with the multitude, who "measure 
themselves by themselves, and compare themselves 
among themselves." It is pleasant to avoid every 
high hill and threatening danger on the road ; and 
to turn away backward, or wind circuitously onward, 
rather than encounter hardships and perils in the 
straightest course. But faith gives other counsel. 
" Enter in at the straight gate ; for wide is the gate 
and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and 
many there be that go in thereat." " Be not con- 
formed to this world." " The fear of man bringeth 
a snare ; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord 
shall be safe." " Cursed is the man that trusteth in 
man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart 



304 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

departeth from the Lord." " Woe to them that call 
evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light 
and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet 
for bitter." Through every gilded pleasure, faith 
perceives the poison and the sting ; through every 
kiss of kind profession, faith detects a dagger for the 
heart; through every green and flowery resting 
place, faith discerns bowels of burning lava under- 
neath, ready to engulph the soul, and drown it in 
destruction and perdition. " Come," says sight, " I 
have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with 
carved works, with fine linen from Egypt ; I have 
perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon ;" 
and, " as a bird hasteth to the snare of the fowler, 
and knoweth not it is for his life," we would go after 
her, but for the guardian counsel of faith ; " the dead 
are there, her guests are in the depths of hell." 
" Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me 
from Lebanon; look from the top of Amena and 
Shenir, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of 
the leopards." 

4. Sight recoils from present evil as eagerly as it 
embraces present good ; while faith welcomes pres- 
ent evil as cordially as it rejects the present gilded 
good. " Therefore I take pleasure," says the apos- 
tle, " in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in 
persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake; for 
when I am weak, then am I strong." Affliction, 
which sight considers heavy, too heavy for us to 
bear, faith considers " light ;" affliction, which sight 
will reckon to be long as life, and for ever, faith con- 
siders to be but " for a small moment ;" affliction, 
which sight and sense regard as deadly, baleful to 



A. T. m'gill, d. d. 305 

every fond hope of the future, faith discovers to 
work " a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory." He hates me, says sense, and therefore chas- 
tises me ; " whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," 
says faith, " and scourgeth every son whom he re- 
ceiveth." She is never ashamed or confounded, 
world without end. The darkest hour of night is to 
her the harbinger of brilliant morning. " When 
clouds and darkness are round about him," she sees 
that " righteousness and judgment are the habitation 
of his throne." 

II. We walk by faith, and not by spiritual sight. 
Besides that carnal sight, which believers retain, to 
some extent, in common with other men, and which, 
although subdued by grace, and subordinated by the 
power of faith, is ever beclouding and enfeebling the 
exercise of this heavenly grace, there is in the re- 
newed man a consciousness of spiritual life and 
power, which impels him to the duties and enjoy- 
ments of religious experience, in a manner that is 
clearly distinguishable from the controlling power of 
faith. This principle of walking is known by vari- 
ous names in theological parlance — the religion of 
feeling, sensible assurance, spiritual affection, &c. 
But, however delightful and animating this impul- 
sion may be to the soul, it is not the great principle 
by which we walk ; it is not the means of our daily 
strength and comfort in the service of God. Faith, 
as even distinguished from this sensible experience, 
constitutes the mainspring of all our present obedi- 
ence and enjoyment. 

Faith is duty — sight or sense of grace is privilege 
Duty fs ever incumbent and invariable — privilege is, 
21 



306 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

for the most part, occasional, and granted or with- 
held according to the sovereign pleasure of God. 
" Trust in the Lord at all times/' says the Psalmist ; 
"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that 
obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in 
darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the 
name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." All be- 
lievers have faith in God ; but all have not sensible 
joy in the light of his countenance. This, like 
every other privilege, is granted only where He sees 
it to be for our good. It would be of no benefit to 
some believers to enjoy full assurance in themselves, 
that they stand firm and safe in the everlasting 
covenant. Some servants of the world are such 
prodigals in living that their wages must be kept 
from them until the season of working is over ; some 
children of God have so much pride and self-confi- 
dence besetting their spiritual life, that glimpses of 
sensible delight are withheld from them for a life- 
time, in order to develope the most needful graces 
and give them appropriate culture. Mortification 
and self-abasement peculiarly befit their constitu- 
tional weakness, and every disclosure of divine love, 
which this weakness might readily pervert, must be 
in mercy withheld ;* so that the very same love of 
God which imparts to humble believers transporting 
demonstrations of covenanted favour, denies them to 
the proud through a long probation, which may be 
lasting as life. You are as safely held in the secu- 
rities of the great salvation without one gleam of 
absolute assurance, through all the course of your 
pilgrimage, if faith be following hard after God, as 
if you could see and feel the certainty of this salva- 



A. T. m'gill, d. d. 307 

tion at every step of }~our journey; although, indeed, 
a sad deprivation of heaven upon earth must be the 
loss of such a diversity in your spiritual lot. 

Faith is direct — sense is reflex. It is only in the 
way of exercising faith — it is only after faith has 
journeyed onward for a distance, that we can look 
back and see that our pathway is certainly right and 
heavenward. They who would walk by a sight of 
grace in their hearts, and hesitate in the exercise of 
faith upon Christ, because they do not first feel and 
know that he is gracious, are about as reasonable as 
men who would try to know how far they have tra- 
velled towards their destination before they take a 
step in the journey. Faith is the hand which opens 
the fountain of every blessing; and long must a 
fountain flow into a broken cistern before it is full 
enough to reflect the image of Jesus from the calm 
surface of a bosom replenished with graces. Faith 
is precious seed, which contains the germ of sensible 
assurance as one of its fruits or developments ; and 
while other fruits must be put forth, more or less, 
under all circumstances of the present life, here is 
one which we may expect only in soil peculiarly 
cultivated with the graces of humility and meekness. 
And for us to falter and hesitate in believing, be- 
cause we do not already enjoy this sensible experi- 
ence, is about as reasonable as to expect fruit before 
we have planted the germ, and to decline all ordi- 
nary fruits because we do not first enjoy one of rare 
and extraordinary production. 

This sensible experience of grace in the heart is 
not necessary, even as an evidence that we do be- 
lieve ; the fruits exhibited in our life and conduct 



308 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

are such evidence. Be this all your concern — to 
prove your faith by your works, and be assured that 
joy in the Holy Ghost, "joy unspeakable and full 
of glory," will be vouchsafed, so far as it is needful, 
to help you on the way to heaven. 

Faith gives more glory to God than does sensible 
delight. Thomas would not believe unless he saw 
the object of faith in every particular of sensible de- 
monstration ; and it was then said, with an emphasis 
for ever memorable: "Blessed are they who have 
not seen, and yet have believed." It gives God but 
little glory when we can trust him only as we trust 
our fellow men, on whom we must lean by the help 
of something beyond their simple words — when we 
cannot venture the soul upon a promise without 
some feeling that it will be fulfilled. Abraham was 
"strong in faith, giving glory to God," because, 
"against hope he believed in hope;" against all 
probabilities for the fulfilment of a promise, and 
even mountain impossibilities to the eye of sense, he 
reposed, with unshaken trust, upon the truth and 
faithfulness of God. This, indeed, is to honour his 
word. And until our faith is schooled in the art of 
clinging to the naked truth of Jehovah in his pro- 
mise, without a ray of visible demonstration, within 
us or without us, it is not schooled enough for 
heaven. 

Faith is uniform — sense is fluctuating. The Chris- 
tian career is called a walk, a race, a fight ; without 
discharge for a moment. If we travelled on shoes 
which are not "iron and brass" in durability — on 
wheels of agitation, which are ever and anon rolling 
off from us ; or the ebbing and flowing of a tide, 



.09 



-which tosses us to heaven to-day, and leaves us drag- 
ging on a rock to-morrow — could we ever make the 
destination sure ? Must we not have a principle of 
progress that is uniform in acting, and always ready ; 
that will pierce the heavens for light when they are 
embossed in thickest darkness, and make even the 
lightning flash of God's anger help along the way of 
duty when his face is hidden with impenetrable 
gloom ? 

Faith is indubitable — sense may deceive the soul 
with innumerable counterfeits. The object of faith 
is the Lord Jesus Christ — the warrant of faith is his 
true and faithful word ; and while ever it holds this 
object, by the strength of this warrant, heaven -and 
earth may fail, and your very existence prove a de- 
lusion before such a faith can fail or deceive the 
soul. But we know how miserably fallacious may 
be the religion of feeling, and how false a joy may 
pervade even the breast of a true believer. " Where 
is then the blessedness ye spake of?" may be the 
reproachful query, after many a season of mistaken 
delight. u My mountain stands strong, I shall never 
be moved," said the Psalmist, in a season of high 
feeling and emotion; but how quickly afterwards 
does he exclaim, " Thou didst hide thy face, and I 
was troubled." 

Faith icill triumph in death, when the religion of 
feeling may be all overwhelmed. When all the pow- 
ers of darkness are summoned to their last efforts of 
hostility and rage ; when fiery darts of doubt, dis- 
quietude, and fear, are hurled by a thousand prac- 
tised arms of temptation ; when our natural strength 
is all abated and sunk to the feeblest infancy ; when 



Q 



10 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 



memory itself has failed, and not one Bethel of 
happy communion, not one anointed pillar in the 
way, can be recalled for comfort, what shall be the 
refuge of the soul, or what its armour ? What we see 
and feel of grace in the heart, or demonstration in 
the life which is now passing away ? Ah, here may 
be the source of direst terror and dismay in that 
critical hour ! What can it be, but that shield of 
heavenly temper with which alone we can now 
"quench the fiery darts of the wicked?" Faith 
only can make us fearless then; faith only can 
repulse the enemy and proclaim the victory. The 
rod and staff of the promise, grasped by a present 
faith in Jesus, can vanquish every evil in the valley 
and shadow of death. " My flesh and my heart 
faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my 
portion for ever." 

III. But we advance to another contrast, between 
faith and sight, essentially different from any that 
we have noticed; when the scale is turned, and 
faith is dropped in vision; when the home is 
reached, and the talisman is laid by as necessary no 
more ; when the battle is ended, and the " shield" is 
hung high in the temple of God, where we shall 
endure as pillars, " to go no more out." Here sight 
and sense cannot be trusted. Without faith they 
lead us to perdition; and even with faith in the 
heart, culturing and refining them with experience 
of grace, they cannot be trusted. But the day is 
coining when this miserable crazy tenement of folly 
and mistake shall stand a glorious and unerring me- 
dium, through which the soul will for ever drink 
blessedness at the fountain of life. Faith will then 



A. T. M<GILL, D. D. 311 

be superseded, as a principle of walking, and cease 
to shine as the star in heaven ceases when the sun 
is risen to meridian splendour ; cease to flow in " the 
desire of our soul to his name, and the remembrance 
of him," as the majestic river ceases when its waters 
mingle with the ocean. 

1. The object of faith is obscure and reflected; 
the object of sight will be direct and resplendent. 
Now " we see through a glass darkly." We see not 
the very person of the Saviour, but, as it were, his 
image reflected from a mirror ; and we see not this 
image with a direct and simple eye, but, as it were, 
through many reflections in a telescope. The Word 
of God is not dark in itself; it contains as bright a 
manifestation of Jehovah Jesus as the present con- 
dition of humanity could bear. Subdued emotions, 
and mitigated transports, are all that mercy intends, 
for the frailty on which he looks from " behind our 
wall," and " through the lattice" of means and ordi- 
nances. But in the heavenly vision, " we shall see 
him as he is," admitted to his own immediate pre- 
sence, for ever " to behold his glory." 

Incomparably brighter is the revelation we enjoy 
than that of our fathers, under the cloud of Old 
Testament figures and shadows. In eager longing 
for our time, when " the day would break, and the 
shadows flee away," how did they rejoice to catch 
even a glimpse of Gospel resplendence. Their time 
was that of the shadow — ours is that of the image ; 
between the shadow and the image there may be 
comparison, but between the image and the substan- 
tial and present reality, there can be none. 

2. Faith's object is unseen at times ; vision's oh- 



312 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

ject will be for ever unclouded before us. Between 
the telescope and the mirror, the "star of Bethle- 
hem" is often hidden from our sight. "My beloved 
had withdrawn himself and was gone." " Behold, 
I go forward, but he is not there ; and backward, but 
I cannot perceive him ; on the left hand where he 
doth work, but I cannot behold him ; he hideth him- 
self on the right hand, that I cannot see him." But 
there " we shall be ever with the Lord." " The Lord 
shall be to thee an everlasting light, and thy God 
thy glory." No darkness nor desertion can be there 
indeed, where there is "no need of the sun, neither 
of the moon to shine in it ; but God doth lighten it, 
and the Lamb is the light thereof." 

3. Faith itself is imperfect in its operations ; vision 
will be perfect and complete. In the very nature 
of the thing there must be imperfection with the use 
of an instrument, whose materials are altogether 
imperfect. How much does the exercise of faith 
depend on the knowledge of God and of Christ ; how 
much on the memory of his promises ; how much 
on diligence in spiritual reflection and contempla- 
tion ; and how deplorably defective are all these, in 
the present life of lapse and corruption ! Add to 
these the interruption of the world and Satan. 
Even if the object of faith were ever before us, with 
steady twinkling, and without a cloud ; if no film 
of error shaded the eye, nor tremor of weakness 
agitated the arm ; and we could hold the glass of 
faith, in all its realizing power, unshaken by any in- 
herent debility of our own ; yet would the jostle of 
the world and the rage of hell turn, ever and anon, 
the telescope aside. But vision on high will be 



A. T. m'gill, d. d. 313 

sound and energetic in itself, rich and perfect in 
every material, and for ever sustained by surround- 
ing influences there. 

Witness the amazing acuteness and perfection of 
Stephens vision, as he was just advancing to the 
portals of "the excellent glory." One beam of it 
burst through the canopy of heaven and lighted on 
his face, and counsellors of even bloodshot eye "look- 
ing steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been 
the face of an angel." And such was the effect on 
his own vision, of this initial ray from the paradise 
of God, that through all the incalculable distance 
between this earth and the home of the blessed in 
heaven; through clouds, through planets, through 
suns, through depths of unfathomable ether, his 
piercing eye beheld " the glory of God, and Jesus 
standing at the right hand of God!" If eyes of 
mortal flesh can be empowered so by one beam of 
that celestial glory, what will not the effulgence of 
noontide produce ? If eyes of mortal flesh, by one 
blink of heavenly vision, can descry at a distance 
which no tongue can tell and no imagination com- 
pute, ineffable and transporting glory, what will not 
eyes of glorified humanity discover when admitted 
to the very throne of God and centre of its brilliance? 

4. Faith is slow, and gradual, and successive, in 
making up the image of her contemplation ; sight 
will comprehend at once, with glance of intuition. 
Here we glean one lineament of Jesus in this chap- 
ter, and another in that, of his holy Word ; some- 
times we see him in the vision ; sometimes in the 
allegory ; sometimes in the plain description. Some- 
times we see him as a prophet, then a priest, then a 



314 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

king ; and thus, culling a flower here, and another 
there, one grace of his person in the Old Testament 
and another in the New, faith makes up her aggre- 
gate at length, and exclaims with delighted conclu- 
sion, "He is altogether lovely!" It could not be 
otherwise at present. A sight like that of Isaiah, 
in vision, of the Lord, "sitting on his throne, high 
and lifted up," would strike us down with terror ; 
" Woe is me, I am undone !" Even the beloved dis- 
ciple, who had reclined on his bosom familiarly in 
the days of his flesh, could not enjoy a glimpse of 
the glorified Eedeemer without falling as dead at 
his feet. 

If all the luminaries in heaven were converged 
into one brilliant centre, it would destroy these eyes 
with its flood of burning light ; but distributed along 
the firmament, in sun, moon and stars, we drink in 
the mild radiance with pleasure wherever we direct 
the eye. If all the glories of Jesus Christ were con- 
verged into one direct and intense description, even 
by words, it would overwhelm and crush these 
feeble powers of the soul; but, diffused over the 
whole firmament of Old and New Testament Scrip- 
ture, we survey with pleasing contemplation the 
truth as it is in Jesus, studded and proportioned, as 
one star differeth from another star in glory. But 
the heavenly vision will scan, with steady rapture, 
all that is bright in Jesus, blended and concentered 
in one blazing sea of glory. 

5. Faith, in her highest exercise on earth, must 
groan, being burdened ; but sight, in her lowest range 
of felicity in heaven, will shout with hallelujahs. 
"In this tabernacle we groan, being burdened." 



A. T. m'gill, d. d. 315 

When wings of faith and love would rise with fer- 
vor to the mount of God, a leaden body drags them 
down. This frame work is too narrow for the com- 
pass of faith when she reaches to Christ and swells 
with foretaste of his glory. "Ourselves also, which 
have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves 
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to 
wit, the redemption of our body." As the man 
whose soul is fired with enthusiastic zeal to read the 
starry heavens must groan impatiently, if some low 
vaulted prison ever prevents him from lifting his 
longest telescope on high; so, and more, infinitely, 
groans the believer, when faith lies checked and dis- 
appointed in this environed and contracted taber- 
nacle. But the frame work of immortal life will be 
spacious and spiritual as its inmate ; the shouts of 
glory in the highest will be loud, as the conceptions 
of the soul are grand ; pure and unfailing, and inse- 
parable, will be the powers of eye, and hand, and 
heart, when "we shall see him as he is," and our 
vile bodies will be "fashioned like unto his glorious 
body." 

We learn from this subject how ennobling faith is, 
and how much dignity and excellence it stamps on 
human nature. Men of the world look on faith as 
weakness, and fancy a disparagement of reason a 
debility of intellectual force, an easy, erring cre- 
dulity, when we speak of living by faith, walking, 
and fighting, and dying by faith. But so did not 
the Spirit of inspiration estimate the worth of human 
character, when beginning the notice of each Old 
Testament worthy, with emphatic mention of his 
faith. Heb. xi. So does not common sense estimate 



316 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

the worth of human character, when we behold a 
poor, short sighted, trembling worm of the dust, 
quailing at every change, deceived by every show, 
blind to the present, blind to the future, and a 
wretched victim of ignoble sense, suddenly stand 
triumphant over weakness, superior to time and 
change, able to value present things as they are and 
future things as they will be ; able to comprehend 
eternity better than he understood one day before. 
Such a transformation is vastly more noble and 
sublime than any deification of man that heathen 
idolatry ever imagined. Superstition never gave to 
the gods an attribute so godlike as the faith of an 
humble believer. And if we had no other and no- 
bler motive, the favour of God, to please whom " with- 
out faith it is impossible," peace of conscience, victory 
over sin and Satan, over the world and death, and 
an everlasting inheritance of glory — all of which are 
sealed to the soul the moment faith is in exercise ; 
if we had none of these unspeakable benefits, the 
very enlargement of soul which it brings, empower- 
ing the human mind to see invisible things, and 
future things, and things substantially good, and 
things in all their eventful consequences, were motive 
enough to impel men to plead with God day and 
night that he would " give it to them, on the behalf 
of Christ, to believe in his name ;" and that he would 
" fulfil in them the good pleasure of his goodness, 
and the work of faith with power." 

We learn again, from this subject, how to test 
religion in ourselves and others, most truly ; where 
alone is the lively oracle which gives certain re- 
sponses on this all important interest. Not our 



A. T. M'GILL, D. D. 317 

frames and feelings ; not our present enjoyments ; 
not all our experience, past and present ; but the 
exercise of faith on Jesus Christ, the reality and 
power of which are evinced by holy living. How 
many a precious hour of time have we lost ; how 
many a pang of unnecessary anguish have we felt 
in standing upon bubbles which burst, in attempting 
to trace our hope of glory on a surface of excited 
feeling, which is fluctuating as the sands of the sea, 
shifting as the winds of heaven. It is true, indeed, 
that our religion is one of mighty emotion, and no 
man ever felt its power without feeling the most 
powerful of all excitement; and it is equally true 
that our prayers and devout endeavours must always 
be exercised to stir emotion and revive the power 
of feeling, as well as to learn its precious truths, and 
imbibe its sanctifying efficacy. But let us never 
forget, that all excitement is spurious which is not 
the offspring of faith, and that all faith is spurious 
which does not vividly apprehend the word of God, 
in its supreme authority and power ; that faith may 
exist where there is but little outward manifestation 
of feeling, and that a conversation becoming the gos- 
pel is worth ten thousand gusts of delighted feeling; 
and no kind of feeling should ever be cherished for 
a moment which will not correspond with the sober- 
ness of a life of faith upon the Son of God. Vast 
inequality in the tide of religious emotion has done 
more to arm the power of infidelity in the world, 
than all the logic besides which unbelief could ever 
command. " The spirit of power and of love," is 
the spirit of " a sound mind." 

Finally, we learn from this subject to anticipate 



318 FAITH AND SIGHT CONTRASTED. 

gladly the joys of that eternal world, where all the 
faculties of mortal and immortal man, set free from 
frailty and sin, restored from the debasement of the 
present life, and the widowed sleep of a long germi- 
nation in the grave, shall become not only perfect in 
use, to be honoured and trusted always, but immea- 
surably enhanced in the original adaptation to min- 
ister happiness ; by a new creation in Christ Jesus, a 
resurrection through the power of his life, and 
translation to the immediate presence of his Father 
and ours. u It doth not yet appear what we shall 
be." The pleasure of the senses, which divine 
goodness spared, in some degree, from the ruins of 
the curse, to make the present life a happy one for 
temperance and virtue, must rise with this identical 
body, which will have " slept in Jesus," not only re- 
paired, refined, exalted, indestructible; not only 
re-admitted to communion with God in his direct and 
constant manifestation, but also advanced to the 
inconceivable felicity which is implied in being 
" partakers of the divine nature ;" a destination of 
superlative dignity and joy, whose range of perfect 
happiness must be all that the glorious Creator 
would confer on any creature. 



CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

BY 

CHAS. HODGE, D. D. 

PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY. 



Is he God of tho Jews only, and not of the Gentiles also ? Ro- 
mans iii. 29. 

We are so familiar with the truth contained in 
these words that we do not appreciate its importance. 
Accustomed to the varied beauties of the earth, we 
behold its manifold wonders without emotion; we 
seldom even raise our eyes to look at the gaudeous 
canopy of heaven, which every night is spread over 
our heads. The blind, however, when suddenly re- 
stored to sight, behold with ecstacy what we regard 
with indifference. Thus the truth that God is not 
a national God, not the God of any one tribe or 
people, but the God and Father of all men, and that 
the Gospel is designed and adapted to all mankind, 
however little it may affect us, filled the apostles 
with astonishment and delight. They were slow in 
arriving at the knowledge of this truth ; they had 
no clear perception of it until after the day of Pen- 
tecost ; the effusion of the Spirit which they then 
received produced a most remarkable change in 
their views and feelings. Before that event, they 

(319) 



320 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

were Jews; afterwards, they were Christians; be- 
fore, they applied all the promises to their own na- 
tion; the only Jerusalem of which they had any 
idea was the city where David dwelt; the only 
temple of which they could form a conception was 
that in which they were accustomed to worship. 
But when they received the anointing of the Holy 
Ghost, the scales fell from their eyes ; their nation 
sank and the Church rose on their renovated sight ; 
the Jerusalem that now is, disappeared when they 
Ibeheld the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven; 
the temple on Mount Zion was no longer glorious, 
by reason of the excelling glory of that temple 
which is the habitation of God by his Spirit; old 
things passed away, all things became new; what 
they had mistaken for the building proved to be the 
scaffolding; the sacrifices, the incense, the pompous 
ritual of the old economy, which they had so long 
regarded as the substance and the end, were found 
to be but shadows. What was the blood of bulls 
and of goats to men who had looked upon the blood 
of Him who, with an eternal Spirit, offered himself 
unto God ? What were priests and Levites to the 
great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God ? What 
was the purifying of the flesh secured by the sprink- 
ling the ashes of a heifer, to the eternal redemption 
secured by Him who is a priest for ever after the 
order of Melchizedec ? What was access to the 
outer court of a temple, in which even the symbol 
of the divine presence was concealed by a veil, to 
access to God himself by the Spirit ? What were 
the tribes of Israel coming up to Jerusalem, to the 
long procession of nations coming to the New Jeru- 



321 

ealem, and kings to the brightness of her rising ; the 
multitudes from Midi an and Epha ; they too from 
Sheba, bringing their gifts with them ; the flocks of 
Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth ; the sons of stran- 
gers and the forces of the Gentiles, hastening to that 
city whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are 
praise ? 

This change in the views of the apostles seems to 
have been almost instantaneous. While Christ was 
upon earth, they were constantly misapprehending 
his doctrines ; even in the night in which he was 
betrayed, there was a contention among them who 
should be the greatest in his kingdom. But as soon 
as they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost they 
ceased to speak and act like Jews, and announced a 
religion for the whole world. 

I. In the general proposition, that the Gospel is 
designed and adapted for all mankind, there are 
several important truths involved. The most com- 
prehensive is that contained in the text: God is 
the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews. It 
is obvious that the Jews generally, and the apostles, 
as Jews, entertained very erroneous views on this 
until they were enlightened by the Holy Ghost; 
they mistook even the spirit of the old dispensation. 
It is true that Jehovah chose their nation for a pe- 
culiar people, and that he was their God in a sense 
in which he was not the God of the heathen. He 
revealed himself to them as he did not unto the 
world ; he instituted for them a system of religious 
observances ; sent them his prophets to declare his 
will ; exercised over them a special providence, and 
constituted them, in the strictest sense, a theocracy. 

22 



322 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

There was nothing, however, in the Old Testament 
which justified the proud and self-righteous spirit 
which the Jews manifested towards the heathen ; 
they were not authorized to look upon them as 
reprobates shut out from the hope of salvation, as 
unworthy of having even the offer of the true reli- 
gion made to them. The surprise expressed by the 
apostles that God had granted unto the Gentiles re- 
pentance unto life, that the gate of heaven was wide 
enough to admit more than the descendants of Abra- 
ham, shows how much they had misconceived the 
spirit of their own religion. 

Their great mistake, however, was in supposing 
that the exclusive spirit, as far as it did in fact be- 
long to the old economy, was meant to be perpetual. 
They mistook a temporary for a permanent arrange- 
ment, and supposed that the glory of the theocracy 
under the Messiah involved nothing beyond the ex- 
altation and extended dominion of their own nation. 
They were blind to the plainest declarations of their 
own Scriptures, which foretold that God would pour 
out his Spirit upon all flesh ; that the Messiah was 
to be a light to the Gentiles, to make known the 
salvation of God to the ends of the earth ; and that 
the sons of the stranger were to have in his king- 
dom a name and a place, better than those of sons 
and daughters. Even the affecting parables of 
our Lord, designed to rebuke the narrow spirit of 
his disciples, failed to make any adequate impression 
on their minds. Though they were told that the 
prodigal son was to be restored to his father's house, 
clothed with the best robe, and rejoiced over with 
peculiar joy, they understood it not. 



j 



CHAS. HODGE, D. D. 323 

It is not to be supposed that the ancient Jews con- 
ceived of Jehovah as a local Deity, confined in his 
essence to any one place, or restricted in his autho- 
rity to any one people. From the beginning they 
had been taught that he was the Creator of all things; 
that he filled heaven and earth ; that he was al- 
mighty, doing his pleasure among the armies of 
heaven and the inhabitants of the earth ; but they 
believed him to be indifferent to the welfare of 
other nations ; they did not know that he had pur- 
poses of mercy for the Gentiles, as well as for them- 
selves. When they called Jehovah their God, they 
meant not only that he was the God whom they ac- 
knowledged, but that he belonged exclusively to 
them, that they monopolized his favour, and were 
the sole heirs of his kingdom. What Christ taught 
them by his Word and Spirit was, that God was as 
favourably inclined to the Gentiles as to the Jews ; 
that the same Lord was rich toward all who called 
upon him ; that there existed no reason in the Di- 
vine mind, why the heathen should not be fellow 
heirs and partakers of the grace of the Gospel, why 
they might not be fellow citizens of the saints and 
of the household of God. This is what is meant, 
when it is said he is the God of the Gentiles as 
well as of the Jews ; he stands in the same general 
relation to both ; he is as favourable to the one as 
to the other; as ready to receive one as the other; 
as willing to receive and save the one as the other. 
Christ came not as the minister of the circumcision 
only, but that the Gentiles might glorify God for his 
mercy, as it is written : Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with 
his people ; praise the Lord all ye Gentiles, laud 



324 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

him all ye people. This is the ground, brethren, on 
which we stand. We are in the Church, not by 
courtesy of man ; not by toleration or sufferance ; 
not as strangers or proselytes, but as fellow citizens 
and fellow heirs. We that were not beloved, are 
now beloved ; we that were not his people, are now 
the people of God, though Abraham be ignorant of 
us, and though Israel acknowledge us not. It is 
this glorious truth, that God is the God of the Gentiles, 
that expands the Gospel and makes it a religion 
suited for the whole world. It is no longer the slug- 
gish Jordan flowing through its narrow channel, it 
is a sea of glory which spreads from pole to pole. 
The mercy and love of God are commensurate with 
his ubiquity ; whenever he looks dowm on man and 
says, My children, they may look up to him and say, 
Our Father ! Praise him, therefore, ye Gentiles, 
laud him, ye people, for Israel's God is our God 
and our Kedeemer. 

II. Again, the proposition that the Gospel is de- 
signed and adapted for all mankind, supposes the 
spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom; that is, that 
the service which is now required is a spiritual, in 
opposition to a ritual and ceremonial service ; that 
the government of that kingdom is a spiritual gov- 
ernment, and that its blessings are spiritual bless- 
ings. The old economy was, from its ritual and 
ceremonial character, incapable of including all na- 
tions. Without the shedding of blood there was no 
remission, but sacrifices could be offered only at Jeru- 
salem ; there was the temple, the priest, and the 
altar ; there was the symbol of the Divine presence ; 
thither the tribes were required to repair three times 



6Z0 



every year. Innumerable cases were constantly 
occurring, which rendered attendance at the place 
where God had recorded his name absolutely neces- 
sary. As the Jewish ritual could not be observed 
out of Jerusalem, it was impossible that the whole 
world should be subjected to that form of worship. 
Those who were afar off were without an offering, 
without a priest, without access to God. The lamen- 
tations of David, when absent from the court of 
God, his earnest longings after liberty of access to 
the place where God revealed his glory, show how 
intimately the happiness of the people of God was 
connected with the services of the sanctuary. Our 
Lord announced a radical change in the whole econo- 
my of religion, and one which disenthralled it from 
all these trammels, when he said to the woman of 
Samaria, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh and 
now is, when ye neither in this mountain, nor yet at 
Jerusalem, shall worship the Father; the true wor- 
shippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in 
truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 
God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must 
worship in Spirit and in truth. It was here taught, 
not only that the worship of God was no longer to 
be confined to any one place, but also that it was no 
longer to be ceremonial but spiritual. It is no longer 
necessary to go up to Jerusalem, in order to 
draw near to God, but wherever two or three are 
met together in his name, there is he in the midst 
of them. The temple, in which his people now 
worship, is no longer a temple made with hands, 
but that spiritual temple made without hands. Its 
pillars rest on the four corners of the earth, and it 



326 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

surmounts the heavens ; the southern African, the 
northern Greenlander, the innumerable company of 
angels, and the general Assembly and Church of the 
first born, are all included in its ample courts. The 
sacrifice which is now offered is not the blood of 
bulls and of goats, but the precious blood of Christ, 
as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 
The incense which now ascends before the throne of 
God, comes not from brazen censers, but from living 
hearts. 

Again, under the old economy the Church had a 
visible head, who dwelt at Jerusalem, by whom the 
annual atonement was made for the sins of the peo- 
ple. He was their intercessor before God ; the me- 
dium of communication between God and his people ; 
the arbiter and director of the whole congregation. 
Those, therefore, who were at a distance from the 
High Priest were necessarily cut off from many of 
the most important advantages of the theocracy. 
Under the Gospel all this is changed. The head of 
the Church, the High Priest of our profession is no 
longer a man dwelling in any one city, but Jesus, 
the Son of God, who by the one offering up of him- 
self hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified ; 
who is every where accessible, every where present 
to guide and comfort his people, and who ever lives 
to make intercession for them. The believer cannot 
be where Christ is not. At any time and in every 
place he may approach his throne, he may embrace 
his knees or wash his feet with tears, and hear him 
say, Son, or daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins are 
forgiven thee. 

Once more, as to this point : the blessings which 



327 



the Gospel offers being spiritual are adapted to all 
mankind. The benefits connected with the old econ- 
omy were in a great measure external and temporal. 
This idea the apostle expresses by saying its rites 
could avail only to the purifying of the flesh. Con- 
sidered in themselves they could do no more than 
secure for those who observed them the benefits 
of the external theocracy. Those who were cir- 
cumcised became members of the Hebrew com- 
monwealth ; those who kept the law, had the pro- 
mise of fruitful seasons; those who had forfeited 
their right of access to the sanctuary, had it restored 
by offering a sacrifice ; those who were defiled by 
any ceremonial uncleanness, might be purified within 
the temple by the officiating priest. Apart, there- 
fore, from its reference to the Gospel, the blessings 
secured by that dispensation were exclusively of this 
external character, for it was impossible that its 
rites should take away sin. These benefits were 
not only of little value, but they were necessarily 
confined to a limited sphere ; they were incapable 
of being extended to all mankind. How low must 
have been the expectations of those who considered 
the Messiah's kingdom as nothing but an enlarge- 
ment of this system. How complete a revolution 
must it have produced in all their views and feelings 
to discover that Christ's kingdom was not of this 
world ; that the blessings which it promised were 
not worldly prosperity, not a pompous ritual or 
splendid temple, not dominion over other nations, 
but the forgiveness of sin, the renewal of the heart, 
reconciliation with God and eternal life. These are 
blessings, not only of infinite value, but such as are 



328 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

confined to no one locality. They are not more 
needed by one set of men than another ; they are 
incapable of being monopolized, for they constitute 
an inheritance which is rather increased than les- 
sened by the number of the heirs. We say then 
that the Gospel dispensation is catholic, or designed 
for the whole world, because it is a spiritual dispensa- 
tion ; the worship which it requires may be as ac- 
ceptably offered in one place as another ; the head of 
this new covenant is every where present and every 
where accessible, and the blessings which he confers 
are suited to the necessities of all mankind. 

III. Another point of no less importance, is, that 
the righteousness of Christ, by which these blessings 
of pardon, regeneration and eternal life are secured, 
is such as to lay an ample foundation for the offer 
of salvation to all men. This is a point with regard 
to which the minds of the apostles underwent a 
great change. Under the old dispensation, the High 
Priest, as the representative of the people, made a 
confession of their sins, imposing them on the head 
of the victim, and made reconciliation by sprinkling 
the blood upon the mercy seat. By that atonement 
the sins of the people, considered as committed 
against the external theocracy, were forgiven, and 
the blessings of that dispensation Yfere actually se- 
cured. It is obvious that this was an atonement 
limited in design to that people, having no reference 
to any other nation. It was limited also in its value, 
having no intrinsic worth, but deriving all its effi- 
cacy from the sovereign appointment. It was also 
limited in its very nature ; being attached to a na- 
tional covenant, it was in its nature available to 



CHAS. HODGE, D. D. 329 

none who were not included in that covenant ; it 
was a Jewish sacrifice, designed for Jews, belonging 
to a covenant made with Jews, and securing blessings 
in which other nations had no concern. 

In complete contrast with all this, we know, in 
the first place, that the work of Christ was not 
limited in design to any one nation. Christ himself 
said, he laid down his life for his sheep, and other 
sheep he had which were not of that fold ; in this 
sense it is said he is the propitiation for our sins, 
and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the 
whole world ; or, as the same apostle expresses the 
same truth in another place, Jesus died not for that 
nation only, but that he should gather together in 
one the children of God that were scattered abroad. 

In the second place, there is no limit to be placed 
to the value of Christ's righteousness ; its worth is 
not to be measured by the duration or intensity of 
the Saviour's sufferings, but by the dignity of his 
person. In contrasting the sacrifices of the Old Tes- 
tament with that of the New, the apostle says the 
former were inefficacious because mere animals were 
offered ; that of Christ was effectual, once for all, 
because he offered up himself. It is the nature of 
the offering that determines its value ; and as the 
dignity of Christ's person is infinite, so is the value 
of his sacrifice ; if it suffices for the salvation of one 
man, it is sufficient for the salvation of all ; it is 
incapable of increase or diminution. The light of 
the sun is not measured by the number of those who 
enjoy its brightness ; millions can see by it as well 
as a single individual; it is not the less because 
many are affected by it, nor would it be the greater 



330 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

though only one enjoyed it. So also the righteous* 
ness of Christ is in value infinite and inexhaustible, 
because it is the righteousness of God. 

In the third place, the righteousness of Christ is 
in its nature suited to all men. As the annual pro- 
pitiation under the old dispensation belonged to the 
covenant formed with the whole people of Israel, and 
was in its nature suited to all included within that 
covenant; so the righteousness of Christ fulfils the 
conditions of that covenant under which all mankind 
are placed. He perfectly obeyed the precepts and 
endured the penalty of that law by which all man- 
kind are bound ; hence his righteousness, being what 
was due from every man, is in its nature suited to 
each and every man. As the work of Christ, as 
connected with the covenant of grace, has special 
reference to all included in that covenant, and effec- 
tually secures their salvation ; but as in performing 
the stipulations of that covenant, he fulfilled the 
conditions of the covenant of works which all man- 
kind had broken, his work is, in its nature, appli- 
cable to all who are under the covenant made with 
Adam. 

Inasmuch, then, as the righteousness of Christ is 
not limited in the design of God to any one nation ; 
as it is of infinite value ; and as it is, in its nature, 
equally applicable to all men, we are authorized to 
go to Jew and Gentile, to barbarians, Scythians, 
bond and free, yea, to every creature, with the offer 
of salvation. If any man refuses the offer, his blood 
will be upon his own head ; he perishes not for want 
of a righteousness, but because he rejects that which 
is of infinite value and suited to all his necessities. 



CIIAS. HODGE, D. D. 331 

The gospel, therefore, is not tramelled ; we can go 
with it round the world, and announce to every crea- 
ture that Christ has died the just for the unjust; 
that he has wrought out an everlasting righteous- 
ness, which any man may accept and plead before 
the throne of God. 

IV. Again, the catholic character of the gospel is 
apparent from its offering salvation on conditions 
suited to all men. It does not require us to ascend 
into heaven, or to go down to the abyss ; its de- 
mands are simple, intelligible and reasonable ; it 
requires nothing peculiar to any sex, age, or class 
of men ; it is not a religion for the rich in distinc- 
tion from the poor, or for the poor in distinction from 
the rich ; it is not a system of philosophy intelligible 
only to the learned, nor is it a superstition which 
none but the ignorant can embrace. It is truth, 
simple and transcendent ; in all that is essential, in- 
telligible to a child, and yet the object of admiration 
and wonder to angels. It does not suspend our sal- 
vation on any particular ecclesiastical connection ; 
it does not require us to decide between conflicting 
churches which has the true succession ; nor does it 
make grace and salvation to depend on the minis- 
tration or will of man ; it is not the religion of any 
one sect or church, and nothing but the wickedness 
can equal the folly of the attempt to confine the 
grace of God to the shallow channel of a particular 
ecclesiastical organization. What the gospel de- 
mands is nigh thee, in thy heart and in thy mouth; 
that is, the word of faith which we preach, that if 
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, 
and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him 



36Z CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the 
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with 
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Here, 
then, are terms of salvation which are suited equally 
to all men, the Jew and the Greek, the wise and the 
unwise, the bond and the free. 

V. Again, the rule of life prescribed by the Gos- 
pel is adapted to all men, in every age and in every 
part of the world ; it is the great law of love, which 
commends itself to every man's conscience, and is 
suited to all the relations of domestic, social, and 
political life. It is a principle which disturbs nothing 
that is good, which can amalgamate with nothing 
that is wrong, which admits of being acted out un- 
der all circumstances, and of accommodating itself to 
all states of society, and to all forms of government. 

How free, how catholic, how pure, how elevated 
is the spirit of the Gospel, which reveals God as an 
universal Father; which makes known a religion 
confined to no locality, burdened with no expensive 
ritual, conferring on those who embrace it, not 
worldly distinctions, but the spiritual blessings of 
pardon and holiness ; which reveals a righteousness 
sufficient for all, and suited for all ; which offers that 
righteousness to all on the simplest of all conditions, 
that of sincerely accepting it ; whose moral precepts 
and principles of religious duty, and of ecclesiastical 
organization admit of being carried out with equal 
purity and power, in all ages and in all parts of the 
world. 

1. The catholic character of the Gospel, which 
we have now been considering, affords one of the 
strongest arguments for its divine origin. No reli- 



d. d. 333 

gion can be true which is not suited to God as its 
author, and to man for whom it is intended. The 
Gospel is suited to God because it supposes him to 
be, as he in fact is, not a national God, but the God 
and Father of all men ; and it is suited to men be- 
cause it meets not the wants of any one class, nor 
any one class of wants, but all the wants of every 
class, tribe or nation. But besides this, this catholi- 
city is the very characteristic which it would be 
most difficult to account for on the supposition of 
its human origin. The apostles were Jews, the very 
name for all that is narrow, national and exclusive ; 
how could the most enlarged and comprehensive 
system of religion owe its origin to such men ? We 
know that the apostles retained much of the nar- 
row and exclusive spirit of their countrymen, as 
long as their Master was upon earth. When he died 
they were ready to despair, saying, We trusted it 
had been He who would have redeemed Israel. 
Even after his resurrection their eyes were still but 
half opened, for the last question which they put to 
him was, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the 
kingdom unto Israel ? Yet, a few days afterward, 
these same men began to preach that the kingdom 
of Christ was a spiritual kingdom, not designed 
specially for Israel, but for all mankind. This fact 
admits of no other solution than that recorded in 
the Acts, after the apostles had received the promised 
effusion of the Spirit ; they spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost, making it apparent that the Gos- 
pel is not the product of Jewish minds, but of men 
divinely instructed and inspired. 

This argument may be viewed in another light. 



334 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

The revelations of God, as contained in the Scrip- 
tures, admit of being divided into three portions : 
those written before the advent of Christ ; those re- 
ferring to his personal ministry on earth ; and those 
written after the effusion of the Spirit, on the day 
of Pentecost. In the first portion, all, at first view, 
is national and exclusive ; the prosperity of Jerusa- 
lem and the exaltation of the Jews would seem to 
be the great subject of prophecy and promise ; still 
there is a constant gleaming through of the impri- 
soned glory ; constantly recurring intimations of a 
spiritual Jerusalem and of a spiritual Israel, in whom 
the glorious things spoken of Zion were to meet 
their accomplishment. 

The personal instructions of our Saviour were 
conveyed mostly in parables, designed to correct the 
misapprehension and to repress the false expecta- 
tions of his countrymen, but rather intimating than 
fully disclosing the nature of his kingdom and the 
design of his mission. The descent of the Holy 
Spirit shed a flood of light on the whole series of 
divine revelations, back even to the first promise 
made to our first parents ; it is the clear exhibition 
of the economy of redemption, made in the books 
written after the day of Pentecost, that enables us 
to read the outlines of the gospel in the law and the 
prophets ; the relation of these several portions of 
the Scriptures to each other, written at intervals 
during the course of fifteen hundred years, shows 
that the whole is the work of one omniscient Spirit; 
and the fact that the catholic spirit of the gospel, as 
unfolded in the later books of the New Testament, 
is in apparent contradiction, though real agreement 



CHAS. HODGE, D. D. 335 

with the earlier portions of the Word of God, is a 
decisive proof that the Bible is indeed the word of 
God and not the word of man. 

2. If the gospel, as has been represented, is de- 
signed and suited for all men, it is suited to us. We 
need the salvation which it reveals ; we, being des- 
titute of any righteousness of our own, must accept 
the righteousness which the gospel offers, or perish 
in our sins. That righteousness being all that any 
sinner needs, and being freely and sincerely offered 
to all who hear the Gospel, we are entirely without 
excuse if we refuse or neglect the invitations of 
mercy. 

3. If the gospel is suited to all men, it should be 
maintained wherever it is known, and sent wherever 
it has not yet been preached. This is the inference 
which the apostle draws from this subject. If there 
is no difference between the Jew and Greek ; if the 
same Lord is rich towards all who call upon him, 
then it is the will of God that all should call upon 
him. But how shall they call on him on whom 
they have not believed ? And how shall they be- 
lieve on him of whom they have not heard ? And 
how shall they hear without a preacher ? And how 
shall they preach except they be sent ? The Gospel 
being suited to all men, and being needed by all, not 
for their temporal well-being, but for their eternal 
salvation, woe is us if we do not make it known ; it 
is an inheritance in which we are but joint heirs 
with all mankind, and we cannot keep the know- 
ledge of this inheritance to ourselves without mani- 
fest injustice and cruelty. 

Let us, then, endeavour to enter more fully into 



336 CATHOLICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 

the catholic spirit of the gospel ; let us remember 
that the unsearchable riches that are in Christ 
Jesus are an inheritance for all the poor and per- 
ishing ; and while we thankfully apprehend those 
riches for ourselves, let us labour that they may be 
made accessible to all mankind. 



CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

BY 

H. A. BOAKDMAN, D. D. 

PASTOR OP THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him good. — 1 Sam. iii. 18. 

In this life we are sanctified but in part. The 
best of men have their infirmities. Even the most 
symmetrical and shining characters disclose, in one 
form or another, the imperfection which attaches to 
all things human. The case is still stronger than 
this. Eminent virtues are often associated with sig- 
nal blemishes. Individuals conspicuous for certain 
Christian graces, are scarcely less conspicuous for 
grievous defects. The venerable Eli was an exam- 
ple. He was the High Priest of Israel. From the 
brief sketch we have of his history he would seem to 
have been a sincere, humble, devout man — attentive 
to his official engagements, and truly concerned for 
the welfare of the people, and the honour of their 
Divine king. But in one department of duty Eli 
was culpably remiss — he had no family government. 
His two sons, his assistants in the temple-rites, were 
profligate young men, whose conduct brought a great 
scandal upon religion — and yet he tolerated it. He 
reproved them, it is true, but in so mild a form that 

23 (337) 



338 CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

it produced no effect upon them — precisely, indeed, 
as many parents in our own day deal with the delin- 
quencies of children whom they have, by their mis- 
placed indulgence, trained to respect their authority 
only so far as it may suit their convenience. After 
repeated warnings had been given to no purpose, God 
at length informs the aged and erring priest that he 
had determined to destroy his sons, and to transfer 
the priesthood to another family — "I have sworn 
unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house 
shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for 
ever." This threatening was first made known to 
"the child Samuel," who communicated it to Eli 
only after he had been solemnly adjured to do it. 
It would be difficult to conceive of a more appalling 
message to the heart of a pious father. To such a 
father, the announcement that a child was to be 
struck down by a sudden death, must, under any 
circumstances, be very afflictive ; but to be told that 
two of his sons — sons, not in their infancy or child- 
hood, but grown up to manhood — sons who had be- 
come notorious for their wickedness, and who neither 
had, nor were likely to have, the slightest prepara- 
tion for death — that God had resolved, as well for 
his sin in not restraining them as for their own 
crimes, to cut off these sons by some terrible judg- 
ment which should " make the ears of every one 
that heard it to tingle" — to be told this must have 
been overwhelming. How does the unhappy old 
man receive it ? "It is the lord ; let him do ivhat 
seemeth him good /" Such was his answer — his whole 
answer ; not another word escaped him. Wonderful 
submission ! Wonderful illustration of the efficacy 



H. A. BOARDUAN, D. D. do9 

of Divine grace in controlling the strongest affections of 
the human heart, and subduing man's rebellious will 
into an unrepining acquiescence in the will of God ! 

It behooves us all to know something of this rare 
endowment. We, too, may have occasion to say, 
"It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him 
good." My subject, then, is Christian submission. 

To discuss it in detail is not my aim. All I pro- 
pose is, to specify some of the chief elements which 
enter into it. 

1. Christian submission excludes murmuring. 

This proposition is self-evident, but the thought 
deserves to be dwelt upon. 

It is natural to murmur under afflictions and 
losses. The voice of nature — that is, of our fallen 
nature — is not the voice of God, but contrary to it. 
It is as natural for us to murmur, when deprived of 
what we love, or disappointed in our hopes, as for 
holy beings to submit promptly and cheerfully to 
the Divine will. We are apt to feel that what we 
have is our own unconditionally; that when we 
have framed and prosecuted our plans with great 
prudence and energy, we are entitled to success; 
that when we have accumulated a fortune, we have 
an implicit right to keep it ; that when we have col- 
lected the varied means and appliances of an elegant 
and graceful life, we ought to be permitted, for a 
period at least, to enjoy them ; that when we are 
surrounded with a healthful and happy family, strong 
in each others' affections, and rejoicing in each others' 
companionship, no power may lawfully invade the 
charmed circle to strike down even the humblest or 
the feeblest of its loved ones. And if, in any of 



340 CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

these eases, disappointment, bankruptcy, death, ac- 
tually comes, the perverted instincts of the heart 
spring up in rebellion against God. I say " against 
God ;" but the quarrel is, for the most part, not with 
him directly ; fear prevents this. We dare not " curse 
God ;" we deal with his instruments. Upon these 
the lacerated heart pours out its resentments ; these 
it charges with injustice or cruelty. 

It is not asserted that this is always done ; far 
from it. But this is the native tendency of the heart, 
a tendency to set up its own will against God's will, 
to question his sovereignty, to cavil at his dispensa- 
tions, to complain that " his ways are not equal," 
and that he afflicts us more than we deserve. That 
this disposition does not uniformly disclose itself is 
easily accounted for. In many it has ceased to exist. 
Nature has given place to a new nature . Grace has 
changed the lion into a lamb. Instead of saying, 
" Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice ?" 
the feeling is, " Not as I will, but as thou wilt !" In 
other cases the tendency to murmur is held in check 
by prudential considerations, 'such as the dread of 
fresh inflictions, and the like. But in too many in- 
stances it breaks forth in impious complaints, or in 
impatient struggles to escape from the pressure of 
God's chastising hand. Wicked men, by their toss- 
ings and murmurings in affliction, often verify that 
striking image of the " troubled sea when it cannot 
rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." 

It is too evident to admit of argument, that this 
spirit is incompatible with the temper inspired by 
the gospel ; in other words, that Christian submis- 
sion excludes murmuring. 



341 

2. It excludes repining. 

Under great trials, it is no less natural to repine 
than to murmur. The heart sinks into despondency. 
The feeling is, " This affliction must crush me — 
God has forgotten to be gracious; He has deter- 
mined, as a just punishment for my sins, to destroy 
me utterly." Or the feeling is, " Now that this ca- 
lamity has befallen me, life is stripped of its sweetest 
charm ; the world is a dreary void ; all that re- 
mains to me is valueless ; there is nothing left worth 
living for." And thus the oppressed soul gives itself 
up to the sway of sorrow, nurses its grief, and re- 
fuses to be comforted. So the Israelites, when pent 
up between the Egyptians and the sea, giving up all 
for lost, cried to Moses and said, " Because there 
were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away 
to die in the wilderness ?" And the prophet, in be- 
wailing his own trials with those of his nation in the 
captivity, "He hath led me and brought me into 
darkness, but not into light. My flesh and my skin 
hath he made old ; he hath broken my bones. He 
hath builded against me and compassed me with 
gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places, as 
they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about 
that I cannot get out; he hath made my chain 
heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he shutteth 
out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with 
hewn stone ; he hath made my paths crooked. He 
was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion 
in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways 
and pulled me in pieces ; he hath made me deso- 
late. . . He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath 
made me drunken with wormwood. . . And I said, 



342 CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

'My strength and my hope is perished from the 
Lord ; remembering mine affliction and my misery, 
the wormwood and the gall/" (Lam. iii. 1 — 19.) 
In strains like these, even the believer will some- 
times bemoan his miserable condition when under 
the rod of chastisement. The prophet, it is true, 
did not pause here; hope was blended with his 
deepest anguish, and he emerges from this thick 
gloom of despondency exclaiming, " The Lord is my 
portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him." 
It is the surrender of the heart to despondency— a 
self-abandonment to repining and hopelessness — of 
which I speak in saying that it is excluded from the 
elements of Christian submission; for this is to 
" faint when we are rebuked" of God ; it is to dis- 
trust his faithfulness or his power ; to interpret his 
dispensations by " feeble sense ;" to assume that he 
has " turned against us to be our enemy," simply be- 
cause he has visited us with peculiar trials, when 
his word every where makes such allotments a 
pledge of his love and a signature of discipleship 
Christian submission excludes repining. 

3. It excludes insensibility. 

Here, perhaps, more persons fail than in either of 
the particulars already specified. They suppose 
themselves to be exercising submission to the Divine 
will, when they are simply indifferent to his chas- 
tisements. There can be no genuine submission 
where there is no sensibility. It seems but a mockery 
of God to exclaim, " Thy will be done !" where the 
event which elicits the sentiment involves no trial, 
and is felt to be no affliction. We may conceive of 
a case in which the conflagration of a man's ware- 



H. A. BOARDUAN, D. D. 343 



house would augment his property to a degree that 
he would sooner it should burn up than not ; or of 
a case in which parents were so destitute of natural 
affection that, on mere pecuniary grounds, they 
would rather a child should die than live ; and in 
examples of this sort the parties, unless they were 
playing the hypocrite, would manifest no sorrow 
under their " losses ;" but who would think of call- 
ing this " Christian submission ?" 

So far, indeed, is this apathy under afflictive dis- 
pensations from belonging to the nature of submis- 
sion, that the Scriptures hold it up as a grievous sin. 
i Afflictions have a voice, and we have no right to 
) shut our ears against it. They are designed to make 
us feel, and if we do not feel when we are smitten, 
we " despise the chastening of the Lord." It was 
one of the characteristic sins of Israel, that they 
would not " regard the works of the Lord, nor the 
operations of his hands," and he threatened, there- 
fore, to destroy them. (Psalm xxviii. 5.) u Thou 
hast stricken them," says the prophet, "but they 
have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but 
they have refused to receive correction." (Jer. v. 3.) 
A child that remains unconcerned under parental 
chastisement, who takes the reproof in a sort of 
stoical silence, which, being interpreted, means, u I 
care nothing about your displeasure, and you may 
punish me or not, as you see fit" — such a child is 
already hardened in sin. To characterize his indif- 
ference as filial submission, would be a flagrant per- 
version of terms, since this pretended u submission" 
would really have in it the essence of filial impiety. 
What better can be said in behalf of that 



344 CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

tion" to the will of Providence, which resigns nothing, 
which parts with nothing it would not sooner part 
with than retain, which makes no sacrifice, is con- 
scious of no loss, misses none of its customary plea- 
sures, feels no aching void, and looks out upon a 
world as bright and joyous as ever ? Can this be 
"submission?" No, my brethren. The heart must 
be cleft before this divine virtue can flow out. These 
strong affections and gentle sympathies must be 
crushed before they can give forth the savour of 
true resignation. These stubborn wills must wage a 
stern conflict with the hand that is stretched forth 
against them, before they can say in the spirit of 
the Gospel, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth 
him good." — Christian submission excludes insensi- 
bility. 

4. It includes a reverential acknowledgment of 
God's hand in the afflictive dispensation. 

Nature and unbelief eye second causes; faith 
fastens its eye upon the great First Cause. It is not 
meant by this that it is wrong to contemplate second 
causes ; they make up a great part of the book of 
Providence, and we not only may but must study 
them. But to stop at second causes is to exclude 
Providence. Nothing is more certain than that his 
agency is concerned, directly or indirectly, in all 
events, afflictive or otherwise. " Is there evil in the 
city and the Lord hath not done it ?" " I kill and I 
make alive; I wound and I heal." When Job's 
flocks and children were swept away, he does not 
regard the tempest, the Chaldeans, and the Sabeans, 
the instruments of his calamities; if he had, he 
might have murmured. But he looked beyond 



H. A. BOARDMAN, D. D. 345 

these, and in the spirit of true submission exclaimed, 
" The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; 
and blessed be the name of the Lord." So, too, with 
the venerable Naomi, when she returned to her na- 
tive town from her sojourn in Moab, a desolate and 
impoverished widow, and the citizens gathered 
around her, and said one to another, with mingled 
surprise and sympathy, "Is this Naomi?" "Call 
me not Naomi," she replied, " call me Mara ; for the 
Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went 
out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again 
empty ; why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the 
Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty 
hath afflicted me ?" To her view, all her afflictions 
spoke of God, and they were submissively to be re- 
ferred to his providence. There can be no genuine 
submission without this feeling. Nor is it enough to 
acknowledge his agency in the event simply. He 
orders as well the minutest circumstances of our, 
trials as the trials themselves. In these circum- 
stances, there is frequently much to harass the feel- 
ings. " We could have borne the stroke, (so we are 
apt to ruminate upon it,) had it been ordered thus 
and so ; had this thing been done or that left un- 
done ; could we only have known beforehand that 
the blow was about to fall ; could we have attempted 
by such or such expedients to avert it ; or, failing in 
this, could we at least have had the melancholy 
satisfaction of seeing it fall, it would have been less 
insupportable." So we reason ; but how unwisely ! 
with what unbelief! Does God notice the falling 
sparrow ; has he numbered the hairs of our heads ; 
and does he overlook any, the most trivial incident 



346 CHKISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

in the afflictions of his creatures, and especially of 
his own children ? Let us check these fond sugges- 
tions of flesh and blood, and say of every circum- 
stance, however slight, in the dispensations of his 
hand, " It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth 
him good." 

5. It includes a conviction of Ms perfect right to do 
what he has done. 

The Christian, under the influence of genuine sub- 
mission, contemplates God as the universal Creator 
and Proprietor; as having a right, underived and 
unconditional, save as the exercise of it may be 
limited by his own infinite perfections, to dispose of 
any and all creatures, as may seem good in his 
sight. Ascribing to him an unrestricted sovereignty 
over every department of human affairs, he feels that 
he may, without trenching upon any real or imagi- 
nary "rights" on the part of his creatures, deal with 
them in the manner best adapted to promote his 
own glory. If he chooses to send poverty, sickness, 
pestilence, domestic troubles, mental disquietude, 
bereavements, or trials of other kinds, faith will vin- 
dicate the equity of the procedure even while the 
heart is bleeding at every pore, and will ask, " Shall 
not the Judge of all the earth do right ?" I do not 
say that this will in every case be done without a 
struggle ; nature is nature still, though sanctified. 
And sometimes the freshets of affliction burst so ab- 
ruptly upon the soul, and pour themselves over it 
with such irresistible fury, that faith is for the time 
well-nigh severed from the rock, and hope's anchor 
drags from its fastening within the vail, and de- 
struction seems inevitable. But presently that voice 



n. a. boardman, d. d. 347 

which said to the raging Gennesareth, "Peace, be 
still !" goes out over the tempestuous flood, and the 
alarmed and desponding soul again lifts up a tearful 
but confiding eye to heaven, and cries, "Father, thy 
will be done !" Only let the believer realize that it 
is God who is dealing with him, and he is satisfied 
that all his allotments are ordered in righteousness 
and equity. He needs no argument to convince him 
that even where "clouds and darkness are round 
about Him, righteousness and judgment are the 
habitation of His throne." Nor is this all. Submis- 
sion not only has respect to God's perfect right to 
do what he has done, and to the righteousness of 
his dispensations, but, 

6. It includes an assurance of His wisdom, faith- 
fulness, and love, in the affliction he has sent. 

It was a common sentiment among the ancient 
heathen, that great trials marked a man as an object 
of the Divine displeasure. Job's friends interpreted 
his afflictions in the same way. The Christian has 
been taught differently. He knows that affliction 
has ever been a part of the heritage of the saints. 
" In the world ye shall have tribulation." " If ye be 
without chastisement, then are ve bastards and not 
sons." It is the specific reason assigned for the pun- 
ishments inflicted upon Israel, that they were God's 
children. " You only have I known of all the fami- 
lies of the earth, therefore will I punish you for all 
your iniquities." And herein he has reference, not 
simply to their aggravated guilt and consequent 
desert of punishment, but also to the benefits they 
might derive from his inflictions. They were his 
own people, and therefore instead of allowing them 



348 CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

to sin with impunity until their cup was full, he 
would chastise them and bring them to repentance. 
" When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, 
that we should not be condemned with the world." 

This view of affliction puts another aspect upon 
it. To the eye of sense it is frowning and terrific ; 
it speaks of vengeance ; it forebodes destruction. But 
faith takes the soul up to the throne, and unveils the 
other phase of the dispensation — that which is averted 
from our mortal eyes, and of which flesh and sense 
can form no conception. Then it is seen that the 
rod is held by a Father's hand ; that it is he who has 
cast his child into the furnace, and that his bosom 
yearns over him with all the love and tenderness 
which a fond father feels towards a son whom he is 
constrained to punish for his faults. He may not 
be apprised of all the grounds and motives of the 
infliction, but he will at least be conscious that he 
deserves chastisement. " I know, Lord, that 
thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithful- 
ness hast afflicted me." Such is the language of true 
submission. God has engaged to perfect his work 
in the hearts of his people, to withhold no good thing 
from them, to do for them whatever may be re- 
quisite, not for their present ease, but for their sanc- 
tification and meetness for heaven. The rod is too 
valuable an implement in carrying forward this 
process to be neglected. If he consulted simply the 
feelings of his children, he would seldom resort to 
chastisement — for what child will ask to be chas- 
tised ? Or, if his affection for them partook of the 
infirmity which so often attaches to parental affec- 
tion among men, he might suffer their sins to go un- 



H. A. BOARDUAN, D. D. 349 

reproved ; but he is a faithful and covenant-keeping 
God. No mistaken tenderness will ever lead him 
to withhold the chastisement which is essential to 
his people's happiness. He loves them too well and 
too wisely not to let them drink sometimes of the 
cup of sorrow. 

The Christian is not often left without adequate 
evidence that his afflictions are ordered in wisdom 
and faithfulness. One of the first effects of affliction 
is to drive him to self-examination. Communing 
with his own heart, and reviewing his life, he will 
usually find abundant indications of infirmity and 
sin. He has, perhaps, been the slave of pride or of 
sensuality ; he has cherished an irascible and vin- 
dictive temper ; he has pursued his secular business 
with an avidity which has left no time for his soul 
and for God ; he has floated far away from his true 
anchorage, on the current of worldly fashion and 
frivolity ; he has grown remiss in watchfulness and 
prayer; he has undervalued and neglected the 
means of grace ; he has failed to profit by former 
chastisements; and by these or other sins and 
omissions, he has declined in spirituality, and lost 
much of his enjoyment in religion, and surrendered 
his soul to barrenness. With these impressions of 
his own unfaithfulness and criminality, he will see 
how wisely, as well as how mercifully, his afflictions 
are adapted to break up his delusive slumber, recover 
him from his declension, and bring him back where 
the light of God's countenance will once more shine 
upon him. 

And even when the affliction may be of such a 
nature that the grounds of it are not readily de 



350 CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

tected, when it consists in one of those awful dis- 
plays of his sovereignty with which God sometimes 
startles and confounds his creatures, even then the 
Christian will struggle against the doubts and terrors 
with which unbelief would overwhelm him, and bow 
to the rod which smites him, with the feeling — 

" Grod is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain." 

7. Finally, Christian submission properly includes 
a desire and determination to profit hy the affliction. 

This is an indispensable test of its sincerity. 
There can be no genuine submission, without an 
earnest desire to have the lessons the affliction is 
fitted to suggest, written upon the heart and carried 
out into the life. It is not for his own pleasure that 
God afflicts his people ; it is from no caprice or cru- 
elty ; but " for their profit." It is that they may be- 
come " partakers of his holiness," and be assimilated 
to Christ their Head. When we say, therefore, 
" Thy will be done !" it is not a bare acquiescence 
in the trial ; it is a prayer that the gracious ends he 
proposes to effect by the stroke may be accom- 
plished ; a prayer that it may be so sanctified as to 
yield to us the "peaceable fruit of righteousness." 
To secure this result should be the great concern of 
the afflicted. The remark is as just as it is com- 
mon, that trials do not leave us as they find us; 
they either harden our hearts or mollify them ; they 
are either a blessing or a curse. The Christian is, 
or should be, too well aware of this, not to tremble 
at the thought of misimproving his afflictions. God 
has come very near to him ; he is waiting to see the 



n. A. BOAHDMAN, D. D. 351 

effect of his dispensations. How solemn, how criti- 
cal a season is it in the history of that stricken Chris- 
tian ; how closely connected with his peace and use- 
fulness; how vital in its bearings upon his whole 
future career ! He sees this. He feels it. With a holy 
jealousy he watches over himself. He studies the 
Scriptures with renewed diligence. He pours out 
his soul, day by day, in fervent supplications for 
wisdom, strength, deliverance from sin, and in- 
creasing holiness. And he addresses himself with 
vigour and alacrity to the duties of his station, re- 
solved, with the help of God, to live henceforth for 
Him who has loved him and died to redeem him. 

Such is an imperfect account of Christian submis- 
sion. Imperfect as the delineation is, it will readily 
occur to you, that it is a virtue of rare excellence 
and of most difficult attainment. That which con- 
stitutes its excellence, reveals the reason why it is 
so difficult of attainment, viz., its contrariety to our 
natural character. " If any man will come after me, 
let him deny himself, and take up his cross and fol- 
low me." True religion consists much in self-cruci 
fixion, and self-crucifixion belongs to the essence of 
Christian submission. 

To inculcate this virtue is easy; to practise it 
exceeds our unassisted powers. Blessed be God for 
the promise, " My grace is sufficient for thee, for my 
strength is made perfect in weakness." " The things 
which are impossible with men are possible with 
God." But for the "everlasting arms," his people 
would faint and die under the calamities of life ; but 
he upholds them. " They that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on 



352 CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. 

wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary, 
they shall walk and not faint." 

There are few amongst us who have not tested 
the truth of these Divine promises ; who have not 
been called, in one way or another, to say, " It is the 
Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." He has 
stripped you of your property, he ha& prostrated 
you with sickness, he has permitted your children 
to plant your path with thorns, he has baffled your 
cherished plans of worldly success and honour, he 
has sent death to fill your hearts and your homes 
with desolation. You know, then, how hard it is 
to say, u Not as I will, but as Thou wilt !" But you 
also know, I trust, that what you cannot say in your 
own strength, he can enable you to say ; and that 
however painful the stroke at the time, he can so 
sustain and sanctify you, that you shall afterwards 
look back upon it with the subdued and grateful 
feeling, <tf It is good for me that I have been afflicted." 



THE PRODIGAL. 

BY - 

JOHN LEIDEN, D. D. 

EDITOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN, PHILADELPHIA. 



I -will arise and go to my Father. — Luke xv. 18. 

The parable of the prodigal son is among the most 
interesting and affecting portions of the Word of 
God. Its strong pictures stand out with great bril- 
liancy and force. Its tender associations, drawn from 
the family hearth-stone, grouping together a father's 
love, the waywardness of intractable boyhood, the 
prodigal's alienation from home, his spendthrift life, 
and what it brought him to ; the coming to himself 
amidst the wretchedness and want his sins had in- 
duced, his return, the old father still, though years 
had passed, looking out for his lost one, and recog- 
nizing him afar off in his rags, the meeting, the forgive- 
ness, the rejoicing — did ever painter have a finer suc- 
cession of scenes for pencil and canvass, than inspi- 
ration has here written in its simple, telling language ? 

This parable, however, has other bearings, far out- 
reaching its mere dramatic interest. Whilst it speaks 
of the relation of father and son, of alienation,' re- 
turn and forgiveness, it shadows forth under beauti- 
ful imagery great scriptural truths, which have to do 

24. ( 353 ) 



354 THE PRODIGAL. 

with the immortal welfare of the soul. Under the 
person of the father is represented God, the one 
great Father of us all ; the son is the sinner, fallen 
and estranged, and loving his wanderings well ; the 
far country is the world of sin and misery, in which 
he makes his home ; the coming to himself, his con- 
viction of sin ; his return, his repentance ; and his 
acceptance and the rejoicings over him, his regenera- 
tion and adoption into the household of the righte- 
ous. The parable, then, has great practical bear- 
ings ; and in order to bring these into such shape as 
that they may favourably affect yon, my readers, 
we shall educe from the passage a few of its plain, 
practical teachings. 

1. The first thought which the passage suggests 
is — that God has given to all men a portion of sub- 
stance. Over and above that, which may be re- 
garded as in some measure mediately the result of 
our own application and industry, we are endowed 
by nature with certain important gifts, which may 
be regarded as a capital in hand, wherewith to do 
our trading for time and for eternity, and of which 
all after accumulations are but the workings up. 
What greater gift could the Father of us all bestow 
upon one of his creatures, than a reasonable soul ? 
This he has not given to beasts, birds, creeping things, 
or to any other order of creation connected with this 
planet where we dwell. A soul, rational and immor- 
tal, is man's possession alone. It uplifts him from 
the common ground on which stand all other earth- 
born creatures, invests him with a lofty superiority, 
and makes him to have dominion over them all. A 
great gift is this soul of man — more valuable than 



d. d, 355 

gems, than mines of gold, or crowns and kingdoms 
— than all the world beside. Especially does this 
gift of a soul seem to be a valuable portion when we 
look at its varied faculties and capabilities. 

It is endowed with an understanding. It has ca- 
pacities for high intelligence. It can discern, appro- 
priate, digest, and powerfully use knowledge. It 
can reason, analyze, pursue long and difficult logical 
processes, and fairly revel in the great fields of thought 
which stretch out over the vast universe of God. It 
has imagination, and can create from next to nothing 
realms of fancy, peopling them at pleasure from her 
vast store-houses. 

The soul has a conscience also. It has capacities 
not only for intelligence, but is possessed of moral 
susceptibilities ; it can discern truth and approve it ; 
it can know evil and condemn it. Kightly edu- 
cated and directed, of all the elements of a human 
soul, conscience is of most importance. Better could 
we do without any thing else than do without that 
which God has put within us as a sort of vicegerent 
for himself — sent to occupy the inner temple of our- 
selves, to make right suggestions, to chide us when 
w r e would go astray, to encourage and cheer, us on 
in all rightrdoing. Conscience — the law written on 
the heart, excusing and accusing — when properly en- 
lightened, is as if we heard the voice of God, speak- 
ing in audible terms approbation or displeasure. 

And, further, to the soul also belongs a will ; it 
has powers of volition ; like the pilot of the boat, it 
can turn the soul about, bearing it onward or keep- 
ing it steadfast, consenting to evil or refusing, ac- 
cepting the offered ways of life and walking in them, 



or. 



56 THE PRODIGAL. 

or else choosing the road to death and travelling 
there. In this will lies the power of the man ; turn 
this and you turn one's whole self; fix this to pur- 
poses of good, and you have lashed the bark's helm, 
with her bows towards a peaceful haven, from which 
no adverse winds or currents can divert her. 

The soul has affections too ; it can love and it can 
hate. Among the chiefest joys life affords, are the 
knitting together of hearts by ties of warm affection, 
so that in each other they find something to approve 
and delight in, to enlist the sympathies and sensi- 
bilities — something to enjoy and almost live for. 
Men love their children, wives, neighbours — they 
have sympathies warm and tender beating in com- 
mon with a circle in whose veins runs their blood, 
or in whose minds dwell kindred sentiments and 
purposes. 

Here, then, in this soul, with its treasure of un- 
derstanding, conscience, will and affections, we have 
the portion of goods which God our Father from on 
high bestows upon us all, at the outset of life. A 
rich inheritance truly is ours, worth infinitely more 
than houses, lands, ships or stocks. 

2. The impenitent have taken this, their sub- 
stance, and gone into a far country. 

This present evil world, with its pride, covetous- 
ness, lust and self-seeking, is a country far from 
God. God is, indeed, in his essence and by his ever- 
present providence, not far from every one of us. 
The sinner, with all his efforts, cannot escape from 
the vision of the Omniscient, nor from the immedi- 
ate proximity of the Omnipresent, nor from the all- 
powerful grasp of the Omnipotent. The wings of 



JOnN LEYBURN, D. D. 357 

the morning cannot bear him from God's sight, nor 
can the darkness hide him, nor the uttermost parts 
of the earth, nor the depths of hell conceal him. 

Still, as to that nearness of the soul to God, which 
presumes a resemblance to him in moral nature, a 
sympathy in the things hated and delighted in, and 
a close and joyful communion of spirit with him, 
there is none of it. It is matter of no great diffi- 
cult}-, impenitent reader, to prove from the actings 
out of your own life towards all that represents your 
God and Saviour here on earth, that you have wan- 
dered far from him. Here, for instance, is his Word. 
In this blessed book of inspiration is the very lan- 
guage of his utterance, placed on record for the in- 
struction and admonition of mankind ; historically 
it is an interesting book; poetically, strikingly sub- 
lime and beautiful ; as to the times in which it was 
produced, it runs through the lapse of ages, and in 
the subjects of which it treats, extends through eter- 
nity. There is no reason, therefore, in the Bible 
itself, why it should not be as attractive as any other 
volume. But is it so ? Under the suggestions of 
an uneasy conscience, you may at rare intervals, or 
perhaps even statedly, read over a chapter or two, 
but in these glorious themes with which its pages 
are enriched, and which are so well adapted to en- 
kindle the enthusiasm and affections of the soul, 
how far are you from any thing of this ! To the 
unregenerate man, God's word is not so welcome as 
an ordinary history, or a poem, a novel, or a news- 
paper; its perusal is absolutely uninteresting and 
irksome ; if read at all, it is read under the direct 
stress of conscience ; you do not love its truths, nor 



358 THE PRODIGAL. 

do its great principles wake up any congenial chord 
in your bosom. You will hence generally neglect it, 
treat it with practical contempt, allow it to lie until 
the dust accumulates on its unopened covers, ever 
trying to get away from what will bring God and 
eternity before you. 

So also it is with prayer. Prayer is a direct 
speaking to God through the intervention of his Son. 
It is when the soul is engaged in earnest supplica- 
tion that God, by his Spirit, deigns to visit the soul. 
The closet is a place of constant, sweet communion 
to the true disciple, akin in its pure, heart-cheering 
enjoyments to heaven; but the sinner has no appre- 
ciation of the privilege ; he does not find comfort in 
pouring out his soul to Him whose ear is ever open 
to the suppliant's cry; if he utters what is called 
prayer, it is but the idle repetition of words ; no 
wrestlings of the soul are there, no taking hold of 
the promises, no visions of Christ, no well-springs 
of consolation; all is dull, unattractive, repulsive. 
Hence he seldom goes through even the form of pri- 
vate prayer to God. He lives day after day without 
asking the Divine blessing upon him for this world 
and the next — without even thinking of it. In fact, 
if by any means he should be reminded that living 
prayerless is an oifence before God, so that his con- 
science begins to rebuke him, he bestirs himself 
straightway to silence conscience or drug it to sleep. 
He does not wish to pray; he has no desire for com- 
munion with heaven ; he has taken his portion of 
goods and wandered far away ; he does not wish to 
speak with God. 

In regard to the public services of God's house, 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. 359 

too, the same spiritual phenomena occur. This is a 
place where God vouchsafes to be present. His 
children, who love him, and desire to enjoy his 
favour, delight to be there. They can say, like the 
Psalmist, " How amiable are thy tabernacles, Lord 
of Hosts !" " A day in thy courts is better than a 
thousand." " I had rather be a door-keeper in the 
house of God, than to dwell in the tents of wicked- 
ness." Not so with the sinner. He had rather 
dwell in the tents of wickedness. No desire has he 
to keep the doors of the sanctuary. Not that we 
would intimate that he is not a church-goer. Edu- 
cation, a vague sense of religious obligation, a general 
impression of the importance of sustaining the ordi- 
nances and influences of Christianity for the public 
good, and other circumstances, may have rendered 
him quite a punctual attendant at church. Nor is he 
always an uninterested hearer. When the preacher 
delivers his message with fine rhetorical accompani- 
ments, it may be in his ears as the melodious sound of 
a pleasant instrument. When good hits are made at 
the short-comings of religious professors, or at gen- 
eral public evils, he can listen with real enjoyment, 
and say, That was well done. When a doctrinal 
point is discussed, he can follow the speaker in his 
logical connections, appreciate the argument, confess 
that he has made good his points, and give his judg- 
ment that he is an able minister of the Word of God. 
But let the minister forget his rhetoric, and, leav- 
ing generalities, or abstract doctrines and other 
people's sins, come directly home to the sinner's own 
case, charging his transgressions down upon him, 
waking up conscience to say, " Thou art the man," 



360 THE PKODIGAL. 

and pointing to the terrible retributions threatened 
against such as he, then what has this hearer to say? 
Wearily he sits beneath such messages ; no praises 
has he now for the preaching, and but little admira- 
tion for the preacher. He is disposed to be captious, 
perhaps wishes for a change of ministers, or a change 
of his church for one where he will hear things less 
unpleasant, or, it may be he forsakes the sanctuary al- 
together. It was not from love of the truth, or love to 
God, he ever went there ; but from habit, interest in 
good speaking, or of a well-digested argument, and 
other extrinsic influences ; and now, when these are 
withdrawn, and God, through the instrumentality 
of his Word, is revealed, he wishes to flee away and 
hide himself. He has left his father's house, and 
gone so far astray that he does not wish to have 
God even speak to him. 

So far has he gone, too, and so fixed is he in 
his purpose to stay at a distance, that hitherto all 
means have failed to bring him back. Preaching, 
persuasions of friends, the example of others re- 
turning, solemn and affecting providences, and even 
the occasional movings of the Spirit, have all been 
unsuccessful. He has taken his goods and gone 
into a far country. 

3. In the far country, whither the sinner has 
gone, like the prodigal, he is squandering his goods. 
Understanding, affections, conscience, and will, may 
not indeed be buried in a napkin, but they are traded 
with for self and this world, instead of for God. 
What seekings after divine truth, what flames of 
heavenly love, what heart-searching to bring out 
hidden sins that they may be slain, what self-morti- 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. 361 

ncation, what purposes to lay out the life for Christ 
and his cause, are ever seen in him ! Alas ! to all 
these he is as much a stranger, and they as much 
strange to him, as if such things were never set forth 
as a part of the obligations incumbent upon him.' 
According to that high and holy sense in which 
God looks upon nothing as rightly done, which has 
not as its prime motive a desire for his glory, the 
sinner's whole life has been fruitless. From the 
dawn of his being, to the present hour, he has not 
done one act, nor spoken one word, nor exercised a 
single affection nor volition, nor cherished a thought 
which heaven can approve. Neither his own soul, 
nor the souls of others are, by any intention upon 
his part, the better of his having come into this 
world. As to all the rich and glorious revenues, 
which God had a right to expect from the priceless 
inheritance he has given him, he has been a most 
unprofitable servant. 

But this neglect, rightly to use his goods, is only 
the negative aspect of his sin. He has positively 
misused and squandered them ; he has diverted 
them to ends absolutely mischievous ; he has lived 
for self, for family, and for worldly aggrandize- 
ment. If sensual pleasures have been most agree- 
able, to thesQ ' he has devoted himself, and, in 
that delusive department of things earthly, has gone 
the rounds of gaiety and fashionable dissipation, 
laying out himself for sumptuous living, worldly 
show, or more vulgar vice, and saying, " Soul, take 
thine ease." Or if his tastes have been of an avari- 
cious cast, he has gone out into the market place, 
and there, with care and toil, has lived but to ac- 



362 THE PRODIGAL. 

cumulate, and having accumulated, still abandoned 
himself to the same. Or if ambition has been his 
ruling passion, he has sought, by all devices which 
ingenuity could suggest, and all the industry of which 
he was capable, for power and place. These have 
constituted the one great object for which the por- 
tion of life already past has been exhausted — to 
which the talents given him have been devoted. 
Fruitless as to the chief end for which he was 
created, and fruitful in all that is forbidden, in the 
far country of this w T orld of sin, he has squandered 
his substance on things which have produced no 
profit, either for God's glory, for the highest welfare 
of his fellow men, or for his own eternal interests. 
With such riotous living have his talents been 
wasted. 

4. Like the prodigal, also, the sinner is in a perish- 
ing condition. Restive was the wayward son with the 
restraints of his father's house ; puffed up with the 
vain conceit that he could do better for himself than 
could be done for him at his native home ; imagining 
that the indulgences from which parental love with- 
held him were things to be desired, and wishing to 
be where he could revel amid such pleasures unmo- 
lested, he secured his portion of goods, and went away 
to lead a life of sensuality. For a season, perhaps, 
all went on well Vice yielded a transient satisfac- 
tion. With money at command and none to hinder, 
he could betake himself to such pleasures to his 
heart's content. He probably wondered that he 
could so long have endured the mopish life at home. 
The freshness of sinful joys enables him to enter into 
them with a full relish. But soon the scene changes. 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. 363 

He finds that sin has a bitter as well as a sweet ; 
that the chalice, whose delicious draughts have so ex- 
hilarated, had wormwood amongst its dregs. Hours 
of revelry left days of ennui, and an aching, empty, 
desolated heart. Soon money was gone — that which 
had bought the momentary pleasures — and with that 
went friends, and the joys of the sinful, lustful 
life. He has tried in vain to find the real good which 
he had sought for. With all his gettings, his soul is 
emptier than at first; and now he has not where- 
with to get, at all. He lacks the very necessaries 
for existence — he perishes with hunger. 

Now to this end has the prodigal sinner already 
come. With all his toil he has never been satisfied. 
Every acquisition, however eagerly and patiently 
sought for, and whatever he may have hoped from 
it, has but left the same void within. His plans may 
have been well laid, they may have been judiciously 
prosecuted, they may have been successful. But 
what then ? Success when achieved has been his 
bane instead of his lasting joy. The end attained, all 
the exhilaration and interest of the pursuit have 
vanished, and he finds himself in possession of that 
which, if honest, he can only hold up before his 
mind's eye, and look at, whilst he exclaims, " How 
hast thou cheated me? With hard toil, for long 
months, with much care and weariness, I have sought 
thee, and now thou art mine, what art thou ? What 
joy canst thou give to this empty soul, thou inert 
thing? What sorrows canst thou soothe, what cares 
drive away ? What am I better than before ?" With 
all his getting, he has gotten but the chaff which 
the swine do eat, and is still perishing with hunger. 



364 THE PRODIGAL. 

Is not such the experience of the ungodly world ? 
Who amongst the throngs that crowd the broad road 
to the second death, have ever found that houses and 
lands, stocks and moneys at interest, operas, routes 
and gay apparel, or crowns, kingdoms, and sceptres, 
satisfied the cravings of the soul ? Pythius, who 
lived in Asia Minor in the time of Xerxes, and 
who was, next to that monarch, the wealthiest 
man in the world, but who was still grinding the 
faces of the poor, received a most eloquent rebuke, 
as to the folly of so setting his heart on gold, from 
his wife, when she had a splendid banquet prepared 
with nothing to eat on the table but gold. Saladin, 
one of the sovereigns of Asia, after all the glories 
he had won, when at last his dying hour approached, 
could but say to his standard bearer — " Go show this 
flag of the dead to the army, and tell them that the 
lord of the East could bring nothing but a single gar- 
ment to the grave." All the world's promised good, 
however fascinating in appearance, like the beauti- 
ful apples of Sodom, falls to ashes at the touch. Far, 
far have you wandered amidst such vain pursuits ; 
long, long, has your aching heart craved for some- 
thing to fill its vast desires ; but all earth's resources 
exhausted, has there not remained the aching, empty 
heart still? Are you not hungering, perishing 
still? The priceless treasure, the immortal soul, 
which God gave you as your inheritance, is, indeed, 
still yours, but in the wanderings and squanderings 
it has become stupified with sin, and is of itself in- 
capable of yielding any revenue of real good ; and 
there, lying in your helplessness, with only the 
swine's chaff for your diet, you perish with hunger. 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. 3G5 

5. The only remedy in this sad extremity is, first 
of all, like the prodigal, to come to yourself. 

Amidst the wretchedness and ruin which his reck- 
less course had brought upon him, God's mercy still 
allowed him to remember that there were good things 
in the home he had left. At that father's house 
want was never known ; no rags were seen even on 
the lowest menial who waited within its portals; 
none ever hungered in vain, amid the plenty with 
which that board was spread; all were cared for 
bountifully, cheerfully, and to their hearts utmost 
content. How does he envy the lot of the lowest 
who dwell there. Happy are they ; whilst he, who 
once as a son shared the bounties of that board, is 
here in a far country, in the fields amidst the swine, 
striving to keep off famine with the husks on which 
the poor brutes he is tending seem to revel, but 
which refuse to refresh and nourish him. Why did 
he ever leave that home? What compensation has 
his riotous living afforded, for the peaceful plenty 
and comfort he there relinquished ? How was he 
deluded in imagining that a life of folly and sin was 
more to be desired, than the gentle and wholesome 
restraints which prevailed in the paternal mansion. 
The spell which rested on him has been broken, and 
he now sees things in their proper light. He has 
come to himself; he was beside himself before. 

And how truly may it be said of every wanderer 
from God, who is seeking his treasures among earthly 
things, that he is beside himself. What man in his 
sane mind could choose a portion such as this world 
affords, in preference to that offered him from the 
Father's house on high ; and especially when his oft- 



366 THE PRODIGAL. 

repeated experience has taught him how vain are 
all things here below ? In that house there are in- 
deed restraints, but these are only to bar the soul 
from what would bring but disappointment, sorrow 
and shame, were they ours. With kind paternal 
tenderness and discrimination, and with a full know- 
ledge of what is best for his children, our Father in 
heaven places his prohibitory mandate only over the 
gateways which lead to wretchedness and ruin. 
His commandments are not grievous. His ways are 
ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. 
He spreads rich banquets of heavenly provision ; he 
opens up fountains of consolation and enjoyment, 
such as know no poisonous intermixture ; his own 
Son received by faith is meat indeed for the famish- 
ing soul ; his word is spirit and life ; he gives peace 
of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and a hope of 
eternal life beyond the grave ; and in the ways of 
obedience to him, and the fruition of the promises, 
there is a welling up of a fountain from which, if a 
man drink, he need never thirst again. "With such 
provision all his children are supplied bountifully 
and freely ; none need ever want ; there is enough 
and to spare. 

Why should the sinner forsake such a home to 
wander in the deserts of this world ; and instead of 
this wholesome nutriment, prepared for the soul by 
him who made it and knew its wants, endeavour to 
satisfy himself with the husks of earthly good? 
Never can he satiate his hungerings until he come 
to his right mind, and sees things in their real and 
relative value. If this world has yielded no fruits 
such as the soul would have, why will he not look 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. 3G7 

where alone they can be found ? If wandering from 
God has brought only disappointment and sorrow, 
why will he not return to God and find real joy ? 
Heaven's resources have not been exhausted by the 
glorious multitude who feed at its banquet tables. 
The portals of that forsaken home are open to re- 
ceive him if he will but return; what folly and 
madness, then, to stay away ! Let reason resume 
her throne. Let him whom God has made capable 
of the high dignity of a son appreciate his privilege, 
and seek to dwell where he properly belongs. Let 
him come to his right mind ; let him prefer the real 
to the counterfeit, the substance to the shadow, the 
solid gold to worthless dust, the banquets of his 
Father's house to the poor husks of the swine- 
herds. 

6. But, unhappily, like the prodigal, the sinner, 
finding himself in want, often betakes himself for 
aid to some citizen of the country where he dwells. 
All his inheritance being gone, the famine pressing 
hard upon him, and no other prospect in view but 
death by hunger, unless he finds relief from some 
source, the prodigal seeks the help nearest at hand 
and most congenial. As yet he has hardly thought 
of returning to his long forsaken home ; he does not 
care to go there ; he fears to meet the piercing, re- 
proachful glance of an injured father ; his great ob- 
ject is to avert the calamity which stares him in the 
face ; he hopes to do this by becoming a hireling, 
and forthwith joins himself to a citizen of that far 
off country, and goes into the fields as a tender of 
swine. 

A most striking counterpart of the prodigal's 



368 THE PRODIGAL. 

course is found in the almost uniform conduct of the 
sinner awakened to a sense of his perishing condi- 
tion. He finds himself in want ; hunger is gnawing 
at his vitals, the world has never satisfied him, he 
sees worse things in store, death is coming on and 
he must perish if he remains where he is. Forth- 
with, therefore, instead of resorting at once to the 
full provisions of the Gospel, he sets himself to 
work out some righteousness of his own, by joining 
himself to what at best must be regarded as belong- 
ing to the country of this present world, and not to 
the kingdom which is from above. He betakes him- 
self to reformation, breaking off from his more overt 
sins ; he abandons Sabbath breaking, profane swear- 
ing, licentiousness, attendance on places of worldly 
amusement and folly, and is outwardly a very dif- 
ferent man. He hopes to be better satisfied under 
his new system of living. Finding this, however, 
unavailing, he goes further, and now opens his long 
neglected Bible, reading portions of it every day; 
he bows his knees in secret to pray ; he is regular 
in his attendance on the sanctuary, and perhaps be- 
gins to frequent the weekly social meetings. In 
these he hopes to find relief for his famishing soul. 
But, alas ! no relief comes ; the Bible is a sealed 
book to him ; his prayers seem idle words ; the mes- 
sages of the minister bring no comfort to his bosom. 
In fact the longer he continues his toilsome routine 
of religious services the more hopeless his prospects 
seem to be ; his heart is hard ; he cannot feel, or 
think, or act as he would do. He begins to despair 
of help from these sources. And well he may. He 
has been striving to work out a righteousness of his 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. 369 

own, instead of humbly seeking that which is 
Christ Jesus. The means of grace, however im- 
portant in their place as means, and an outward 
reformation, however indispensable, will not of them- 
selves avail ; he has stopped short of the right re- 
fuge, and joined himself to what are best but citi- 
zens of the country of this present world. If he 
goes no further for help, he must still perish with 
hunger. 

7. And this leads to the remark, that, like the 
prodigal, and with the same spirit also, the sinner 
must return to his father's house. 

Temptations, indeed, there may be to keep him 
where he is. Looking at the distance to which he 
has gone, and the steps which must be retraced, the 
way back seems long and difficult. In his poverty 
and rags he may think himself badly prepared for 
the journey. Should he reach the gates of the 
homestead, how does he know that he will be re- 
ceived ? He erred in forsaking that home ; and his 
career since, together with his present wretched ap- 
pearance, have nothing to recommend him. Has 
not his father cast him off for ever ? With kindred 
doubts and fears may the sinner, whom God's Spirit 
has convinced of the vanity of the world and the 
wretchedness of his condition, be perplexed when 
he thinks of returning to God. A long way, indeed, 
has he wandered in sin. Difficult does it seem for 
him to retrace his steps. With a soul all polluted 
and guilty — in spiritual rags and wretchedness, what 
has he to recommend him ? He has treated with 
fixed and intentional neglect and contempt the calls 
to return which have been long ringing in his ears. 

25 



370 THE PRODIGAL. 

Even should he go begging to be received again, will 
the paternal doors be opened to him ? 

And yet, what would the prodigal gain by staying 
away ? Like the leprous men at the gate of Sama- 
ria, if he stays there he will perish, and he can but 
perish if he goes. He will relinquish" all idea of 
sonship ; he will humble himself, and beg, as matter 
of special grace, to be but admitted as a servant. 
And so, also, we may ask the prodigal sinner think- 
ing of a return, but kept back by doubts and fears, 
what will it profit you to stay where you are in your 
sins ? You are dying with hunger ; a little longer, 
and the famine will have clean overtaken you, and 
you will have perished for ever. Death is inevitable 
— the undying, everdying second death, should you 
remain in your sins ; if you go to your neglected 
God and Saviour, seeking for mercy, you can but 
perish. In the whole universe there is no hope of 
safety but in this one thing of returning. You have 
no merit of your own to plead ; but you can confess 
your sins, and beg for mercy ; and peradventure par- 
don will ensue. So thought the- prodigal, and in 
that dark and guilty soul the struggle was ended ; 
the last resolve was made ; the swine-herds and the 
husks were to be forsaken ; and from his trembling 
lips fell the words, " I will arise and go to my father, 
and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
heaven and in thy sight." Such a resolution, rising 
from the heart-depths of a sinner, evinces the very 
spirit of evangelical penitence. Here is a sense of 
sin ; a willingness frankly and fully to confess it ; 
the conviction that it has all been against the holy 
and excellent law of God ; an abandonment of all 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. 371 

pretension to self-righteousness and a willingness to 
plead guilty, and acquiesce in the sentence which 
would debar him from son ship for ever ; and withal, 
a determination to return, casting himself upon the 
mercy of God in Christ Jesus as his only hope. 
Herein is that mingled despair and rising hope — that 
giving up of self, and the going out of faith towards 
an all-sufficient Saviour, which marks the transition 
of a soul from the kingdom of darkness into that of 
God's dear Son. With such a spirit, no sinner need 
fear to seek an injured father's face. 

8. And this leads us finally, to say, that returning 
with the spirit of the prodigal, a favourable and joy- 
ful reception is certain. Long though it had been 
since that w^ayward son had fled his home, the kind- 
ness of a father's heart had not grown cold. Wicked 
as has been his life, and wretched as he is in 
his poverty and rags, he will not be spurned from 
the homestead doors. His trembling footsteps bring 
him near that home ; his fainting heart almost dreads 
to make the appeal to be received again ; at the last 
moment he is almost ready, like Lot's wife, to look 
back to Sodom. But just then the Father's eye 
discerns him, the long lost son is recognized, the 
tender heart of paternal love melts in compassion ; 
the prodigal begins his confessions, but ere they have 
been ended, he is embraced by a father's arms, for- 
given for all his wanderings, and acknowledged as a 
son once more. Robes white and clean are put upon 
him, he is adorned with gold, the fatted calf is killed, 
and the whole household echoes with strains of joy. 
He that was as good as dead, is made alive again ; 
the lost is found. 



372 THE PRODIGAL. 

Such a reception, free and joyful, awaits you, my 
unconverted reader, if in your wretchedness and 
ruin you come pleading for mercy, at the doors of 
the kingdom. Through the riches of grace, which 
is in Christ Jesus, all your sins can be forgiven ; by 
the Spirit which he has purchased a new heart can 
be put within you ; and in the pure garments of his 
righteousness you can stand accepted. More fa- 
voured than the prodigal, you have a divine, all- 
powerful friend to plead your cause. God the Father, 
and this elder brother Jesus Christ, in the counsels 
of eternity, devised a plan for securing the return 
for such as you. The Redeemer's incarnation ; his 
life of faithful obedience; his agonizing death on 
Calvary, and his intercession at the right hand of 
the Father in heaven, all were designed to prepare 
the new and living way by which the prodigal sin- 
ner may come back to God. His own honour and 
the compensation for the travail of his soul are in- 
volved in the rescue of the lost. Every prodigal 
returned is a fresh contribution to the rich revenue 
of glory he is to receive as recompense for his shame, 
dishonour and death ; every wanderer brought back 
from sin and hell, is a new token of his triumph over 
his enemies- — another star added to the lustre of his 
peerless crown. In such conquests all heaven sym- 
pathises — for there is joy among the angels even 
over one sinner that repenteth. Why then should 
you not come ? The way through Christ is an open 
way. " Him that cometh to me," says he, " I will 
in no wise cast out," and in him your utmost desires 
shall be satisfied, for he also says, " I am the bread 
of life ; he that cometh to me shall never hunger." 



JOHN LEYBURN, D. D. O/O 

More willing is the Father to receive you, than you 
are to return. His yearning heart pities you, his kind 
voice calls you, and if you but come you shall be a 
son and an heir in that glorious household. No 
sooner will the broken utterances of your guiltiness 
fall from your lips, than they shall be heard, and the 
lofty courts of heaven shall reverberate with songs 

of joy. 

And will you come ? Let me plead with you to 
tarry no longer away. Does your proud spirit at 
last relent ? Has the great resolve been made ? From 
your troubled heart has the language gone forth, 
" I will arise and return ?" Then, blessed, thrice 
blessed will you be. A Saviour's blood will wash 
your sins away, and your rags will be exchanged 
for a robe of righteousness. A prodigal returned ; 
how great the change ! No more a stranger, but a 
son at home ; no longer away in a desert land among 
the swine, perishing with hunger, but here at a 
father's board, where there is enough and to spare. 
The husks all gone ; the empty aching heart at last 
filled — the longing soul satisfied from the rich pro- 
visions of a Saviour's love ; and though but yester- 
day an outcast beggar, now an heir of God, a joint 
heir with Jesus Christ, in full brotherhood with the 
saints on earth and in heaven, and but waiting for 
the mansions prepared above, for the full fruition of 
a kingdom and a crown. Joy, joy for ever ! The 
dead is made alive! The lost is found! 



THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. , 

BY 

E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. 



Preached before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at the open* 
ing of its Sessions in Charleston, S. C, May 20, 1852. 



Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit. — Matt. vii. 17. 

These words of our Lord contain a profound and 
comprehensive truth. As the nature of the tree, 
whether good or corrupt, is made known by its fruit, 
even so, the Master observes, false prophets may be 
detected. They come in sheep's clothing, yet being 
inwardly ravening wolves, their rapacity invariably 
betrays itself. Now we may give to this maxim a 
wider application, and suggest that a religious faith, 
as well as a religious teacher, whether true or false, 
will develope, by outward and significant marks, all 
its vital peculiarities. The inner life of Judaism, in 
its purer days, and then that life in the period of its 
degeneracy, clearly revealed its nature by many 
striking phenomena. The same remark applies to 
Christianity in all the phases which it assumes. 
These phases are determined by the peculiar the- 
ology which, from time to time, is received into the 
fixed and inward convictions of mankind. The 

(374) 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 375 

true discovers itself as good, and the false as evil, by 
inevitable developments. "Even so, every good 
tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit." The text, as thus ex- 
plained, prescribes to this occasion a discourse of 

OUR THEOLOGY IN ITS DEVELOPMENTS. 

The purposes of this argument do not require a 
discussion of our theology in its sources and eviden- 
ces. Nor is it needful, in this presence, to expound 
its peculiar doctrines. These have been made widely 
known through its living disciples, its written for- 
mularies, its celebrated teachers of former genera- 
tions, and their powerful adversaries. Few intelli- 
gent persons are ignorant of the doctrines which its 
faithful disciples deduce from the Scriptures, even 
those touching the sovereignty of God and the de- 
pendence of the creature; his purpose as foreor- 
daining, and his glory as the end of creation, sin, 
and redemption; the imputation unto all of the 
guilt of the first man, our federal head ; the utter 
corruption of human nature ; the election unto sal- 
vation of a certain and definite number; their re- 
demption by the vicarious obedience and penal suf- 
ferings of the Son of God; the work of the Holy 
Spirit persuading and enabling them to accept of 
Christ; their justification by faith alone; and their 
infallible perseverance, secured by the immutability 
of the decree of election. 

These doctrines are further verified as of the sub- 
stance of our theology, by its celebrated symbols. 
Our faith is held within the brief compass of the 
Lambeth articles ; it is stated at large in the Latter 



376 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

Confession of Helvetia; it is delivered systemati- 
cally in the judgment of the Synod of Dort ; and it 
is yet more accurately denned in our own accepted 
standards, the Confession and Catechisms of West- 
minster. 

Our system of doctrine is also identified closely in 
some things, and substantially in the most, with the 
names of the illustrious men who, since the days of 
Paul, and of Him the greater than Paul, have been 
masters in this school of divine learning; even 
Augustine, Calvin, and Edwards. We speak with 
reverence too, of Beza, Turretin, Owen, Kidgley, 
Witherspoon, Bellamy, and Chalmers ; " howbeit 
these attained not unto the first three." 

This faith is identified, still further, with the repu- 
tation of its great adversaries — Pelagius, Arminius, 
the Jesuit antagonists of the Port Royal, the Tri- 
dentine Fathers, and Pope Clement XI. in the Bull 
Unisfenitus. 

I may assume, therefore, that our distinctive prin- 
ciples are, for the purposes of this argument, suffi- 
ciently familiar to every intelligent hearer, and 
especially to the members of the venerable court in 
whose presence I am required to appear. This 
being assumed, I proceed at once to indicate some 
of the fruits of our doctrinal system. 

In the first place, it developes a peculiar type of 
spiritual life. The piety which has been subjected 
to the influence of our theology, includes a deep 
sense of personal unworthiness. The man perceives 
that he has violated God's law in instances without 
number; so that he is by wicked works a sinner. 
Still further, he ascertains that his actual transgres- 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 377 

sions proceed from a disposition to sin inherent in 
his moral constitution, and that not only is his 
nature the source of sin, but its corruption is itself, 
like all the motions thereof, truly and properly sin ; 
so that he is, in that double sense, a sinner by 
nature. He acknowledges, yet further, that he is 
wholly disabled to good, and wholly inclined to evil, 
so that he is a sinner only. And finally, he con- 
fesses that this death in sin is an hereditary corrup- 
tion conveyed to him from the first man, Adam ; so 
that he is a sinner of a sinful race. I spend no 
labour in showing that a conviction of sin fastened 
on the conscience by a sense of active, innate, total, 
and hereditary depravity, must be most thorough 
and pungent. 

Nor is this all. The kindred feeling of utter help- 
lessness rests on his mind. He perceives that every 
one of his unnumbered sins deserves the wrath and 
curse of God for ever ; and, further, that he can offer 
no atonement to a violated law. He is fully con- 
scious, also, of his absolute want of power to change 
his evil nature, itself being one main ground of his 
condemnation. Another step brings him to a know- 
ledge of the condemnation that rests upon him with 
the imputed sin of Adam, our federal head. Now 
some may say, that his understanding is strangely 
perverted who accepts all these things as true ; yet 
even they must concede that he who does in fact 
believe them, and believing, feels their power, will 
realize the ideas both of guilt and of helplessness to 
the uttermost. This theology brings the sinner face 
to face with his own inexcusable and aggravated 
transgressions, and face to face, also, with a condem- 



378 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

nation, from which, as touching man or angel, every 
ray of hope is excluded, and in which is mingled 
every element of despair. 

But our doctrines do not rest here. They impart 
to the piety of the believer the element of an un- 
doubting faith. The Word of God, as expounded 
by our divines, exhibits the believer as a chosen in 
Christ from before the foundation of the world ; so 
that his salvation springs from the eternal purpose 
of God. It further declares, that the love of God 
has abounded towards him in a plan of redemption ; 
so that the believer's safety is secured by the mercy 
of God. Going still deeper, he learns that an atone- 
ment has been made for sin by the vicarious and in- 
finite sacrifice of the Lord Christ, and that in this 
expiation, he hath fully obeyed the precept of the 
law, and exhausted its penalty, and now all law and 
all justice demand the pardon of the penitent sin- 
ner, so that he is saved from death by the act of God, 
not only meditating in mercy, but judging in righte- 
ousness. Still further, this expiation relieves us 
from the condemnation we lie under, by reason of 
our actual transgressions, our evil natures and our 
relation to the sin of the first man ; so that this is an 
abounding salvation. The Holy Spirit, moreover, 
regenerates and sanctifies God's chosen ones by his 
efficacious grace, and secures also their perseverance 
unto the end ; so that it is a complete salvation. 

Now if the believer comprehend these wondrous 
truths ; if he rest his soul on the unchangeable pur- 
pose of God, the finished righteousness of Christ, and 
the renewing power of the Eternal Spirit ; if he ap- 
prehend all this to be true, planting his feet firmly 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 379 

here, he realizes the stupendous idea of salvation by 
grace, and may raise the triumphant demands of the 
Apostle, "Who is he that condemneth?" "Who 
shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ?" 
" Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?" 

It might also be shown, that the spiritual life, de- 
veloped by our theology, is the piety of humility ; 
that it is, further, the piety of gratitude ; and fur- 
ther yet, that it gives to Christ, as of debt, and re- 
ceives from him as of grace : " You go to receive 
your reward," was said to the dying Hooker; " I go 
to receive mercy," was his reply. If all these things 
be so, we may well say that our theology developes 
a type of spiritual life, which is not only peculiar, 
but the highest possible to humanity in its mortal 
state. 

In the second place, this theology developes the 
principles of a free ecclesiastical polity. 

It were easy to show that our theology, when 
traced to its logical conclusions, wholly divests the 
ministry of the sacerdotal character, denies that or- 
dination hath any sacramental efficacy whatever, 
distinguishes between the right of administering 
sealing ordinances and the power of government, 
affirms that all believers are, equally, and as such 
kings and priests unto God, and declares for the 
Lord Jesus , Christ as the sole and supreme Head 
of the Church. In these conclusions, or rather in 
these articles of faith, our doctrinal system developes, 
theoretically, the four great principles which enter 
into the basis of a free Church government. These 
are the parity of the ministry, the authority of the 
laity as equal and co-ordinate with that of the clergy 



380 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

in every ecclesiastical judicatory, the election of all 
church officers by the people, and the independence 
of the Church in relation to the State * Now, 
treating this topic historically, we cannot fail to re- 
cognize a thorough alliance between our distinctive 
faith and each of these principles. The equality in 
office of all men ordained to the work of the ministry 
has been from the beginning invariably affirmed, 
and the doctrine of the prelacy has been constantly 
rejected, by all the churches strictly called reformed 
in Europe and America. Such conceptions of the 
ministerial office did they obtain from their theology, 
that the bishop's lawn or mitre would have been a 
spectacle, quite as rare in the French, Belgic, or 
Helvetian churches, as it would have been in a Pres- 
bytery of the old Scottish Kirk, or in a Puritan con- 
venticle, or, as I take leave to add, in a company of 
the apostles. 

* The doctrine of our ecclesiastical polity involves these two 
among other propositions. First, that its principles are laid down 
in the Word of God ; secondly, that the same principles are indi- 
cated by our theology. The first proposition discovers the au- 
thority on which Presbyterianism, as a form of church government, 
rests; and the other discloses its logical relations. These two 
propositions are distinct, true, and in no degree inconsistent. The 
limits of this discourse did not admit the discussion of the higher 
topic — the authority on which our polity rests. The author was 
obliged to restrict himself to a brief view of the o£her particular 
— the logical relations of our theology and our polity. Not sup- 
posing that any hearer or reader of the discourse would regard the 
affirming of the second proposition as a denial of the first, the au« 
thor is as much surprised as are the Princton Reviewers, " to learn 
that some hearers took exception to his discourse, as though he 
placed the whole authority of our system on its logical relations." 
The same remarks apply to the treatment of the third head of the 
discourse. 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 381 

The representation of the people in all ecclesias- 
tical courts has almost invariably attended our doc- 
trinal system. Our congregational brethren affirm 
this principle in its broadest sense, by investing the 
brotherhood in each congregation with the whole 
power of government. In most of the Reformed 
Churches, the office of the ruling elder is held to be 
of scriptural authority. The incumbents of this 
office are usually of the people, elected by the peo- 
ple, ordained in the name of Christ, and invested 
with a divine right to sit in every church court, and 
to share in all its deliberations. Their numbers, 
intelligence, and piety, give them a predominant in- 
fluence in ecclesiastical affairs. Their office, at once 
the ornament and bulwark of a free Church, saves 
the kingdom of the saints from degenerating into a 
kingdom of the clergy. 

Not less incontestible is it that our doctrinal sys- 
tem carries with it the free election of all church 
officers by the people. In the Eomish establishment 
the sacerdotal order perpetuates itself. The Pope 
is the creature, and, in his turn, the creator of the 
cardinals. He also appoints the bishops, and they 
designate the priests ; and this spiritual close corpo- 
ration takes its charter from the dogmatic faith of 
the Church, as settled at Trent. In the Anglican 
establishment, the crown invests the bishops, the 
bishops appoint the priests, and the patron — it may 
be a profligate peer — endows them with a parish 
and a living. This hierarchy experiences no dis- 
turbing influences from the theology with which it 
is associated. But with a partial exception, soon to 
be mentioned, the churches which receive our pecu- 



382 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

liar faith affirm that the election of persons to preach 
the Word, administer the sacraments, and use autho- 
rity is in the people ; and that the act of power, whe- 
ther civil or ecclesiastical, which places in the con- 
gregation a pastor not of its own free choice, is an 
intrusion which is to be for ever denounced as un- 
scriptural, and resisted as intolerable. 

The fourth principle, the separation of the Church 
from the control of the civil power, exhibits, in its 
historical development, a remarkable illustration of 
the vital forces of our divinity. Calvin, Cranmer, 
and the Scottish Eeformers committed to the secular 
power an injurious control over spiritual affairs, be- 
cause their intellects, though large and comprehen- 
sive, were not large enough to comprehend fully the 
immense results of their theology. They did not 
perceive that their own principles, when carried to 
their legitimate conclusions, would deliver the Church 
of Christ from the dominion of both kings and re- 
publics, and establish it as a purely spiritual and in- 
dependent power on earth. It was their high office 
to fix in the convictions of men a religious faith, 
which, being itself true, should gradually correct the 
errors of its most illustrious teachers; and, being 
pure, should purge itself from all human ordinances ; 
and, being free, should throw off every yoke of spi- 
ritual servitude, until it became the inner and po- 
tential life of a Church, like our own, which answer- 
eth not to the Jerusalem that then was, and was 
in bondage with her children, but to the Jerusa- 
lem which is above, which is free, and the mother 
of us all. 

It may be suggested, that the Established Churches 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 383 

of England and Scotland exhibit clear instances of 
a coalition, rather than a repugnance, between our 
theology and the institutions of Prelacy and Eras- 
tianism. But as to the Anglican Church, it may 
well be said in reply, that although the doctrinal 
portions of the thirty-nine articles are orthodox in 
terms, yet an Arminian sense has been fastened on 
them by the general consent of all concerned. The 
form of sound words is but a form ; the Genevan 
ingredient, originally cast into the Alembic, has 
long since evaporated, leaving undisturbed, hence- 
forth, the Prelatical and Erastian elements in the 
crucible. As a further reply, it may be stated that 
when the Anglican Church was most distinguished 
for its orthodoxy, the doctrine of the prelacy sat but 
loosely on the convictions of its bishops and doctors. 
The theological views of Cranmer, the first Protest- 
ant Archbishop of Canterbury, are made known by 
the fact, that his advocacy of predestination and 
election was as decided as that of Augustine himself; 
and his opinions touching the ministry are revealed 
in his plain avowal of the conviction, that in primi- 
tive times there was no distinction between bishops 
and priests. So long as his successors in the pri- 
macy perpetuated his theology, they perpetuated 
also his gentle views of prelacy ; one of them only, 
Bancroft, venturing to assert its divine authority. 
It was reserved for Archbishop Laud to inaugurate 
the Arminian theology in the Church, and with that 
a zeal for diocesan episcopacy, as an ordinance of 
God, a passion for ceremonies, and a merciless per- 
secution of those who believed, without subscribing 
the creed which he subscribed without believing. 



384 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

The history of this establishment, therefore, instead 
of weakening, confirms our argument. 

Not less significant is the history of the Church 
of Scotland, where our theology has been perpetuated 
for three hundred years. Its developments in the 
way of order have been infinitely remarkable. In 
the first place, the persuasions of the English court, 
and the bayonets of her armies, have not been able 
to fasten an Episcopacy on the Kirk. Secondly, a 
representation of the people, sitting in all the Church 
courts, has ever been of the substance of her polity. 
Thirdly, the Kirk, although condescending to be by 
law established, has never been Erastian ; and the 
moderate party, so called, which verged towards 
Erastianism in policy, exhibited at the same time 
the most unequivocal tendencies towards Arminian- 
ism in doctrine ; while the opposite party contended 
both for orthodoxy in faith, and for the rights of 
God's people in the free choice of their pastors. 
Lastly, the unexhausted forces of our theology, hav- 
ing delivered the Kirk from every other element of 
bondage, is perpetually struggling through a series 
of agitations and disruptions, to purge her from the 
remaining iniquity of patronage. These disturb- 
ances will be incessantly renewed, from generation 
to generation, until the venerable Kirk must take 
her choice between disowning her patronage, or losing 
all her children, or abandoning that ancient faith, 
which teaches them to vindicate their rights, even 
unto a separation from her sacraments. Either her 
theology, as in England, or her subjection to the 
State, as in this country, must disappear from the 
crucible, or the crucible itself will be broken by the 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 385 

antagonism of its ingredients. So intolerant is this 
theology of any other than a polity absolutely free. 

In the third place, our theology developes a simple 
and spiritual mode of worship. The ritual of a 
religion is a most accurate expression of its system 
of doctrine. Comparing the Romish Church with 
our own, for example, we shall ascertain that their 
forms of worship are dissimilar, because their the- 
ologies are repugnant. The ceremonials of Rome 
are not accidents of the system, nor were they 
devised for dramatic effect alone. They embody a 
meaning ; they express a doctrine ; they address not 
more directly the imagination than the faith of the 
worshippers. It is held by that establishment thai 
the sacrament of the supper, when rightly adminis- 
tered, hath an inherent power to save. It derives 
this power from the fact, that the elements are 
changed into the body and blood, the soul and 
divinity of Jesus Christ, and as such are presented to 
God, a true propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the 
living and the dead. It is the function of the officii 
ating clergymen to offer up this atoning sacrifice ; he. 
is, therefore, in fact a priest, and the table on which 
he lays the oblation is, in strictness of speech, an 
altar. The priest officiates moreover in the person 
of Christ. His vestments, the decorations of the 
altar, and all the surroundings, represent incidents 
in the passion of Christ. The practised eye of the 
devotee beholds, in the garments and bands worn 
by the priest, symbols of the robe in which Christ 
was clothed, and the cords by which he was bound. 
The crucifix, embroidered on the back of the robe, 
represents the cross which Jesus bore on his shoul- 

26 



386 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

ders, and the tonsure of the priest denotes the crown 
of thorns. The altar is the figure of Calvary, and 
its furniture represents the linen clothes in which 
the body of Jesus was wrapped, the sepulchre, and 
the stone which was rolled against the door. The 
crucifix is the image of Christ's passion and death ; 
the lighted candles are in honour of his triumph ; 
and the ascending incense is symbolical of prayer. 
The circular form of the wafer denotes the perfec- 
tions of the Deity. In the wafer Christ is person- 
ally present; its elevation is the fearful immolation ; 
and the prostration of the worshippers is in adora- 
tion of the atoning lamb. Every gesture and pos- 
ture of the priest embodies a theological significancy. 
When he kisses the altar or the book, when he 
spreads forth his hands, or bathes the tips of his 
finger, or mingles water in the wine, or breaks the 
bread, or makes the sign of the cross, or smites upon 
his breast, or bows, or kneels, he does not perform one 
empty ceremony, but in every, even the minutest, 
act of the sacred pantomime, he exhibits some one 
element in the single definite idea of the great 
apostacy — salvation by the sacraments in the keep- 
ing of the priesthood. This central idea, this inte- 
rior life of the system, not only prescribes its ritual, 
but regulates also the form, and size, and adorn- 
ments of its sacred buildings. The cathedral is not 
designed for the preaching of the Word, nor yet for 
prayer and praise, but precisely for the dwelling- 
place of the Lord Christ present in the sacrament, 
and for the work of sacrifice. It is, therefore, at 
once a palace and a temple. As such it must 
assume the form of the cross, and must be of splen- 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 387 

did architecture. Were the conception fully real- 
ized, every stone in its walls, though hidden from 
mortal sight, would be hewn and polished for the 
eye of the Master. Its massive doors would be 
curiously wrought in solid brass, so that men might 
gaze in wonder on the beautiful gate of the temple. 
Within, its pillars would shoot far upwards towards 
the heavens ; its marble pavement would resemble 
the solid earth, and its swelling dome the bending 
skies. Exquisite creations of genius would adorn 
its walls ; gold, and silver, and all rubies, the glory of 
Lebanon, and the purple of Tyre, would enrich its 
shrines; the incense burned at its altars w r ould 
breathe Sabean odours ; and music would invoke its 
utmost melody to fill the amplitude of the temple 
and its mighty dome with the articulate joy of the 
Te Dewn, or the dolorous wail of the Miserere. 

Returning now to our own doctrinal standards, we 
are taught that the believer is first chosen according 
to the eternal purpose of God, then justified by the 
finished righteousness of Christ, and renewed by the 
power of the Holy Spirit. The ritual, which ex- 
presses these ideas, is too simple to-be called a 
ritual. When the Westminster doctrine, justifica- 
tion by faith, takes the place of the Tridentine dog- 
ma, justification by the sacraments, instantly the 
priest becomes a minister, and the altar a com- 
munion table. The bread and the wine are no 
longer the body and blood of Christ, but the memo- 
rials of these. The impious immolation of the mass 
is turned into a sweet and holy feast, and the mut- 
terings of the priest are exchanged for the pastor's 
prayer. The devotee, kneeling to the bread and 



388 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

robbed of the cup, is regenerated into the communi- 
cant, sitting, as the disciples sat, to receive the bro- 
ken bread, and to drink from the cup of blessing, 
which in the Master's name we bless. The temple 
becomes a house of prayer ; the preaching of Christ 
supersedes the elevation of the host ; the hearing 
ear takes the place of the stupid stare ; the lacera- 
tions of penance are exchanged for the sighs of peni- 
tence ; the closet banishes the confessional ; and the 
believer's act of faith, receiving Christ as the Sa- 
viour, supplants for ever the Auto de Fe of the In- 
quisitor, committing God's chosen ones to the flames. 
How quickly, how utterly does the true doctrine 
exterminate the idolatrous ritual of Home ! Away 
go surplice, tonsure, rosary, bowings, kneelings, 
mutterings, and antiphonies; away, away go cru- 
cifixes, paintings, images, dead men's bones, incense, 
lighted candles, the sign of the cross, masses for 
the dead, and indulgences for the living. All these 
symbols of a baptized idolatry do unquestionably 
proceed from the Komish theology ; even so, every 
corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. But how 
simple and spiritual the worship prescribed by our 
theology; the reading of the Word, the song of 
praise, the prayer, the sermon, the baptism, the 
supper, and the blessing upon the people ,* even so, 
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. 

In the fourth place, our theology developes the 
intellectual jooicers. Not only was pure religion re- 
vived at the period of Keformation, but the human 
mind was inspired with new activity. It were an 
easy task to trace this intellectual awakening to the 
theology of the Reformers. The doctrine of justifi* 



389 

cation by faitli alone was, perhaps, their first great 
discovery. Then five of the seven sacraments were 
discarded as fraudulent, and the two that remained 
were wrested from their superstitious uses. Next 
the Word of God was rescued both from the hierar- 
chy and the unknown tongue which concealed its 
light. A step further revealed the fundamental 
principle that the Bible is the only infallible rule of 
faith and practice. A final step brought them to 
the knowledge of our theology. Under the increas- 
ing light and power of these successive discoveries, 
sacerdotalism, ritualism, the sanctity of tradition, the 
legends of saints, the dreams of the fathers, the 
insolence and fraud of priestcraft, and the credulity 
and servility of its subjects, withered away. The 
human mind, so long darkened, or intimidated, or 
smothered by the midseval faith and worship, now 
experienced the vitalizing impulse of the apostolical 
theology. Other systems have inflamed the ardour 
of leading minds, but this communicated an up- 
heaving force to the masses. Never since the days 
of the Apostles had there been such a wide spread 
and wonder working excitement. 

It was a spiritual and intellectual resurrection. 
The dead were raised ; the soul dead in sin, and the 
intellect dead in imbecility, were made alive. What 
was true then is true to this day. It cannot be de- 
nied that our theology, saying nothing here of its 
saving efficacy, is a mighty intellectual power on 
earth. It is an universal, unfailing educator. It 
planted in Scotland the free parochial school, and 
used the Shorter Catechism to discipline the mind of 
the peasant's child up to the comprehension of all 



390 THE TREE KNOAYJS BY ITS FRUITS. 

liberal learning. A missionary, sent by one of our 
Boards to a community where there is neither 
church nor school, will soon establish both, and his 
preaching will invigorate the understanding of his 
hearers, while it saves their souls. A sermon on the 
divine decrees, delivered by a passing stranger, in a 
place w T here that doctrine was never before ex- 
pounded, has been known to agitate the minds of 
the whole community, planting in the bosoms of 
many a strangely quickening power. A doctrinal 
book, issued by our Board of Publication and car- 
ried, we know not how, to a distant frontier settle- 
ment, has led the reader not only to pray as he 
never prayed before, but to meditate with an inten- 
sity he never experienced before. "Thy testimo- 
nies," saith the Psalmist, "are wonderful, therefore 
doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words 
giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple." 

If we would describe the effect of our theology 
on the development of individual minds, we should 
know not where to begin, and beginning we should 
know not where to end our labours. The pages of 
history fatigue the eye with the names of illustrious 
men, who have arisen in every land penetrated by 
this doctrine. The learning of scholars, the elo- 
quence of preachers, the irresistible logic of contro- 
versialists, the wisdom of statesmen, and the genius 
of great commanders have borrowed the highest in- 
spiration from their and our accepted faith. Let us 
discharge this part of our duty with the mention of 
a single name. 

John Calvin was twenty years of age before he 
was converted from Rome to Christ. When, soon 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 391 

afterwards, our theology struck its forces into his 
mind, it roused him to the utmost stretch of thought. 
It was like a fire in his bones. So vital was the 
new life within him, that at the age of twenty-six he 
had deduced our entire system of doctrine from the 
Word of God, adjusted its elements into a master- 
piece of logical coherence, and published it to the 
world in his immortal Institutes. The tw T enty-eight 
years of life that remained to him were laden with 
affliction both of mind and body. Physical infirmi- 
ties multiplied upon him, until no less than seven 
distinct maladies laid siege to his attenuated frame. 
He suffered also every private grief, even that do- 
mestic bereavement which he styled " an acute and 
burning wound." 

It is impossible to look, without wonder, at the 
labours he prosecuted amidst all this weariness and 
painfulness. The products of his pen exist in nine 
huge folios of printed matter, besides several hun- 
dred letters, and more than two thousand sermons 
and theological treatises yet unpublished. He pre- 
pared a copious commentary on most of the Scrip- 
tures ; he edited a French translation of the word 
of God ; he disputed by tongue and pen with Bolzec 
on the doctrine of predestination, with Westphal and 
Hesshus on the sacraments, with Welsius on the free 
will, with Pighius on free grace, and Servetus on 
the Trinity. He wrote against relics and astrology, 
the Anabaptists, the Libertines, and the Pelagians, 
lie employed his wit and sarcasm in assailing the 
Sorbonne, his powers of argumentation in confuting 
the Tridentine Decrees, and his noble eloquence in 
behalf of the Emperor against the Pope. He cor- 



392 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

responded incessantly with his contemporaries — Fa- 
rel, Viret, Beza, Melancthon, Knox, Cranmer, and 
the Kings of Sweden, Poland, and Navarre; pro- 
jecting, by his long and masterly letters, his own 
intellectual and spiritual life into the leading minds 
of Europe. With an asthmatical cough upon him, 
he lectured three days in the week on theology, and 
preached daily on every alternate week. He pre- 
sided every Thursday at the Court of Morals, at- 
tended the frequent assembly of the clergy, assisted 
in settling the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of Ge- 
neva ; he founded there a seminary of liberal learning, 
and when the city was threatened with siege, laboured 
at the fortification. He educated preachers of the 
gospel ; performed many journeys ; was consulted on 
all important subjects ; occupied the pulpits of his 
brethren in their absence ; and did not neglect pas- 
toral labour in the congregation. Besides all these 
things, he composed the dissensions which, perplexed 
the Reformers, and the strifes which afflicted the 
churches; and aided in settling the affairs of the 
Reformation in Poland, France, Germany, Scotland 
and England. At last, being compelled by mortal 
disease to relinquish public duties, he received in his 
chamber all who sought his advice, and wore out 
his amanuenses by dictating to them his works and 
letters. When his shortening breath and failing 
voice terminated these labours, his kindling eye and 
heaving breast indicated that he was in constant 
prayer. On a beautiful evening in May, seven days 
later in the month than this the day of our solemn 
convocation, just as the setting sun was irradiating, 
with its purple light, the waters of Lehman and the 



393 

Rhone, the Jura mountains and the more distant 
glaciers of the Alps, this great man rested from his 
labours. He gave directions that his body should 
be buried without the slightest pomp, and that his 
grave should be marked by neither monument nor 
headstone. His commands were obeyed, and "no 
man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." 

In the fifth place, our theology develops the prin- 
ciples of republican liberty. The full treatment of 
this topic falls more naturally into an historical dis- 
course, than into one strictly religious. Yet a dis- 
tinct mention, with a brief illustration of this part 
of the case, is essential to the completeness of our 
argument. We use no labour in showing that the 
principles inherent in a free commonwealth are iden- 
tical with those Which have been mentioned in this 
discourse, as inherent in a free Church. The theo- 
logy, which in its full development, leaves no place 
for a bishop in the Church, will also rule the king 
out of the State. John WicklifFe understood this 
thoroughly when he uttered the memorable words, 
" dominion belongs to grace ;" and Charles the First 
was no mean logician when he declared that " there 
was not a wiser man seen since Solomon, than he 
who said — no bishop, no king." The doctrinal sys- 
tem which conducts to the conclusion that all church 
officers should be elected by the people, will push on 
to the adjacent conclusion, that hereditary authority 
in the State is an intolerable usurpation. The creed 
which demonstrates the right of the people to sit by 
their representatives in all church courts, and which 
vindicates this right as divine, and which further 
denies that the assembly excluding the popular 



394 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

element is a scriptural assembly, that creed will 
characterize as unlawful and iniquitous any civil 
government whereof the people are not the masters. 
Indeed, our system of faith does not more conclu- 
sively sweep away the last vestige of sacerdotal usur- 
pation from the Church, than it exterminates every 
anti-republican institute out of the State. The tem- 
poral must follow the spiritual, and whom Christ 
makes free, he is free indeed. 

Such is the conclusion of logic in the premises, 
and such, I now add as briefly as possible, is matter 
of fact. Any profound examination of the history 
of the Huguenots, will show that their church, in 
its faith and order, was essentially republican, and 
as such, was crushed by the monarchy; and that 
the political position of modern France, is to be re- 
ferred, first, to the life, and then to the destruction 
of that old predestinarian church ; its life so far sur- 
viving in the heart of the nation, as to render a 
fixed monarchy impossible, and that life so nearly 
extinguished, as to render a stable republic also im- 
possible. Even a superficial examination of the his- 
tory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, will show 
that this divinity, expounded by its divines in the 
pulpit, espoused by great statesmen in Parliament, 
and defended by illustrious commanders on the field 
of battle, infused into the British constitution the 
soul of rational liberty, until that constitution is, 
with a single exception, the richest repository on 
earth of free principles. What that exception is, we 
know, and where it received its treasures we know. 
This same divinity came with the Puritans to Ply- 
mouth, with the Dutch Calvinists and the Scottish 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 395 

Presbyterians to New York and New Jersey, and 
with the Huguenots and Presbyterians to South 
Carolina. Our fathers did not found monarchical 
institutions on the shores of Massachusetts bay, or 
on the banks of the Hudson, and the Ashley and 
Cooper, for the same reason that they did not set 
up the worship of the Virgin. Monarchy and idol- 
atry were, both of them, repugnant to their religious 
faith, and they repudiated both, and established a 
true worship, and a free commonwealth on all these 
shores. This ancient faith, and the institutions 
rising from it, were perpetuated from generation 
to generation, until they culminated in the war of 
Independence, and in the formation of these sepa- 
rate commonwealths, together with their great con- 
federacy. From that faith, as from a living root 
planted on our virgin soil, and by our rivers of wa- 
ters, have sprung the witness bearing Church, and 
the republican State. These, in their turn, seeking 
a higher development, have flow r ered out with all 
spiritual joys, and all the fragrant charities of life : 

" So from the root 
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves 
More aery, last the bright consummate flower 
Spirits odorous breathes. "* 

In the sixth place, our theology develops its life 
in the patience of the confessors and martyrs. The 

* The conduct of the ministers, ruling elders, and communi- 
cants of the Presbyterian Church in the Revolutionary war, fur- 
nishes some remarkable illustrations of this topic. Among the 
ministers who were actively engaged in the struggle, were John 
Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of Independence; James 



o 



96 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 



martyrs of Protestantism have been almost exclu- 
sively drawn from the bosom of the Reformed 
churches, rarely from the Lutheran or Arminian 
communions. A century before Luther was born, 
John Huss was consigned to the flames by the coun- 
cil of Constance, on charge of teaching, among other 
heresies, the doctrines of predestination and the per- 
severance of the saints. The charge was clearly 
sustained, for he had written in his book, that " no 
part or member of the church doth finally fall away, 
because the charity of predestination, which is the 
bond and chain of the same, doth never fall away." 
Jerome of Prague having' avowed his faith in the 
preaching of Huss, was burned on the same sj)ot by 
order of the same infamous Council. The works of 

Caldwell of New Jersey, who was murdered by a British soldier 
for his patriotic exertions ; William Graham of Liberty Hall Aca- 
demy, Virginia, who, hearing that Tarlton was advancing on Staun- 
ton, raised a company of volunteers and led them in pursuit of 
the enemy as far as Lafayette's camp, below Charlottsville ; Pre- 
sident Smith of Hampden Sidney College, who repeatedly marched 
at the head of his pupils to repel the enemy ; James Hall of 
North Carolina, who assembled his congregation, and besought 
them to take up arms for the common defence, and immediately 
raised among them a company of cavalry, and took both the com- 
mand and the chaplaincy ; Samuel Houston, who used his rifle 
with deadly effect at the battle of Guildford Court House ; David 
Caldwell, for whose head Lord Cornwallis offered a reward of 
£200 ; Thomas McCaule, who led his flock to the camp, and stood 
by the side of General Davidson when he fell on the Catawba; 
and Hezekiah Balch, who, with nine ruling elders and other citi- 
zens, put forth the celebrated Mecklenburg Declaration. The 
military services of the ruling elders and communicants of the 
Church were so important and numerous that a few could not be 
specified, without seeming invidiousness towards the many that 
must necessarily be excluded from a brief note. 



E. P. HUMPHKET, D. D. 397 

John Wickliffe being found by the council to con- 
tain similar doctrines, his body which had lain forty- 
one years was dug up and burned. As the old his- 
torian writes : " They cast his ashes into the Swift, 
a neighbouring brook running hard by ; this brook 
hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Sev- 
ern, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main 
ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the em- 
blem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the 
world over." 

One hundred and forty years later brings us to the 
reign of Mary the bloody. On the 4th of February, 
1555, John Rogers went to the stake at Smithfield, 
having, during his imprisonment, set his hand to a 
confession instinct with the Genevan doctrines. On 
the following day, Dr. Roland Taylor, three days 
later Lawrence Sanders, one day after him, Bishop 
John Hooper, three weeks yet later Bishop Ferrar, 
and in the June following John Bradford, confessors 
with Rogers by signing the same memorable docu- 
ment, became martyrs likewise with him, giving 
their bodies to be burned. In October of the same 
year, Ridley and Latimer, both bound to one stake 
at Oxford, testified to the truth of our divinity in 
their last words to the Church and their dying prayer 
to God. In December following, Archdeacon Phil- 
pot^ and not long after him the illustrious Cranmer, 
in the profession of the same faith, and the suffering 
of the same death, entered into the joy of the Lord. 

Turning now to the sister kingdom, we learn that 
nearly thirty years before Rogers was burned in 
London, Hamilton passed through the fires of St. 
xVndrews. If the cruelty of the English Bishop 



398 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

justifies the historian in exclaiming, "that lion, 
tiger, wolf, bear, yea, a whole forest of wild beasts 
met in Bonner," he was well matched by the Scot- 
tish Cardinal Beaton. The priory of St. Andrews 
is no less monumental of Wishart's sufferings than 
is the gate of Baliol College of Ridley's ; and the 
altar on Castle Hill, at Edinburgh, smoked as inces- 
santly as that in Smithfield, with the blood of the 
saints. It is as certain, moreover, that the Scottish 
martyrs were of the faith of Knox, as that the 
English martyrs were of the faith of Cranmer. 

I may not detain this argument with a detail 
of the sufferings endured for Christ, during the 
seventeenth century, by the non-conformists of Eng- 
land and the Presbyterians of Scotland. The intol- 
erance of Archbishop Laud in the one country had 
its counterpart in the bigotry of Archbishop Sharpe 
in the other ; the judicial murders of Jeffries were 
equalled in atrocity by the military butcheries of 
Claverhouse ; the high commission answered to the 
court of justiciary; the " Bloody Assizes" of sixteen 
hundred and eighty-five, in England, corresponded 
to the u Killing Time" of sixteen hundred and 
eighty-four, in Scotland ; and the grave yard of Bun- 
hill Fields, in London, and that near the Grass- 
market, in Edinburgh, gave rest to a multitude 
of "them that were beheaded for the witness of 
Jesus." Of the peculiar theology, to which all 
these gave testimony, there is no need that one 
should speak. 

The martyrology of the Netherlands is not less 
decisive in support of our argument. The theology 
which entered these countries at the period of the 



399 

Reformation, was unquestionably the same that was 
subsequently affirmed by the judgment of the Synod 
of Dort. It is true that Holland was the original 
seat of Arminianism, and the birth place of its great 
teacher ; yet it is also true that, twenty-four years 
before that teacher was born, William Tyndal was 
strangled and burned at Antwerp, having translated 
the New Testament Scriptures, and deduced from 
them the doctrine that, such is his own language, 
"in Christ the believer was predestinated and or- 
dained unto eternal life before the world began." 
Five years before the birth of Arminius, the morose 
fanatacism, with which Charles V. had pursued the 
saints of the most High God, gave place to the 
wilder fury of Philip, the husband of Mary the 
bloody. The founder of the new theology was a 
lad of only eight years, playing in the streets of 
Oude water, when the Duke of Alva,, entered the low 
countries and established the Council of Blood ; and 
he was only fourteen years of age when the Duke 
left the Netherlands, boasting that he had, within 
five years, delivered eighteen thousand heretics to 
the executioners. If it be needful to add another 
word, we may observe that the Papal persecution 
had nearly, if not quite, spent its rage in Holland 
before Arminius became an Arminian. 

And now, turning to the martyr Church, what 
shall be said of the theology which was received, 
and the sufferings that were endured by the Hugue- 
nots ? Of the former it were enough to say, that 
the very germ of the Reformation was planted in 
France by Leclerc and Farel ; that Calvin dedicated 
his Institutes to Francis I. as containing the precise 



i 00 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

doctrines preached by the Reformers in the king- 
dom ; that the confession of the French Protestant 
Church was drawn up by the hand of the same 
master, and was little more than an epitome of his 
" Institutes ;" and that as late as the year preceding 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the National 
Synod sat under the presidency of Beza, who was 
second only to Calvin in ability, and not inferior to 
him in attachment to the Augustinian doctrines. 
The story of their sufferings should begin with the 
punishment, in 1523, of Leclerc, the proto-martyr 
of France. It should describe the fete of Paris, in 
January, 1535, when Francis I. closed the festivities 
of the day by suspending six Protestants from a 
beam, which was so nicely balanced that its motion 
plunged the sufferers successively and repeatedly 
into a blazing furnace, until they were destroyed. 
It should relate*, how Henry II., amidst the tourna- 
ments and illuminations which graced his coro- 
nation, passed from place to place to regale himself 
with the mortal agonies of men dying for the faith. 
It should also describe the massacre of St. Bartho- 
lomew, turning the Seine into blood, choking the 
current of the Rhone with the bodies of the slain, 
and awakening Te Deums and merry cannonades on 
the banks of the Tiber. Thousands were buried 
alive in dungeons. Some were tortured, and then 
delivered, so that women received, as it were, their 
dead raised to life again ; others were tortured, not 
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a 
better resurrection. They were burned, they were 
scourged, were gashed with knives, were branded, 
were hanged, were drowned, were slain with the 



401 

sword. But let me not wound your sensibilities 
with these details. I willingly turn from them, if 
nothing more be needed to identify our theology 
with the sufferings endured in all lands by those of 
whom the world was not worthy. 

In the seventh place, our theology developes the 
elements of an expanding and aggressive Christianity. 

A doctrinal treatment of this part of the case 
would demonstrate that a church, which incorporates 
into its inner life an intelligent faith in the fixed 
decrees of God, must become, by the necessity of its 
nature, a missionary church ; one of these decrees, 
as declared by the Son of God, being that the hea- 
then shall be given to him for his inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. 
Indeed, our doctrines are, in a twofold sense, divinely 
adapted to this work ; as dwelling in the bosom of 
the church, they sustain an intense and exalted life, 
even the life of God, urging his people to spread the 
everlasting gospel throughout the earth; as termi- 
nating on the world, they are clothed with a tran- 
scendent and mighty power, the power of God unto 
salvation. 

The actual progress of Christ's kingdom, under 
the promulgation of these doctrines, confirms every 
word that has now been uttered. This theology 
entered Geneva, and in the space of thirty years 
caused the wrath of man to praise God, and the re- 
mainder it restrained. In France it made such 
headway against unrelaxing and unrelenting perse- 
cution, that within sixty years from its introduction 
into the kingdom, the National Synod had under 

its charge more than two thousand churches, the 

27 



402 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

greater part of these being furnished with two min- 
isters, and some of them with five or six ; and not 
a few of the congregations numbering more than ten 
thousand communicants. Entering Holland, Eng- 
land, Scotland and Poland, it subdued kingdoms, 
" wrought righteousness and obtained the promises." 
Having been planted on this continent, it is the ac- 
cepted faith — though in some instances less purely 
and rigidly held than we could desire — of deno- 
minations numbering, in the aggregate, six thou- 
sand ministers, seven thousand five hundred con- 
gregations, and eight hundred thousand communi- 
cants. 

The history of its missionary undertakings is not 
less remarkable. Our brethren of the English church 
are about to celebrate the jubilee of the Society for 
the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. Yet 
this oldest Protestant Missionary Association on 
earth received its charter from William III., who 
was orthodox after the Synod of Dort. The enter- 
prise of foreign missions, in this country, received 
its earliest impulse in a college, the theology of 
which is indicated by the fact that soon afterwards, 
our own Griffin assumed its Presidency. 

The zeal for Domestic Missions originated almost 
simultaneously in our own General Assembly, and in 
churches of whose faith, at the time, the Saybrook 
Platform and the Shorter Catechism were the expo- 
nents. The diffusive tendencies of our theology are 
still further indicated by the missionary schemes of 
the Scottish churches, established and dissenting; 
the Boards of our own church ; and the voluntary 
societies sustained by brethren of other names, who 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 403 

profess our faith in the "substance," if not in the 
" system of doctrine." 

But it may be thought that the Arminian divinity, 
as preached by John Wesley, has developed a type 
of Christianity no less diffusive than our own. Now, 
while we may not conceal the profound conviction 
that our own theology, even when it differs from 
Wesley's, is the theology of the Bible, yet we would 
do all homage to the vital truths which that great 
man adopted into his system of faith, and to the 
zeal and success with which he and his disciples 
have proclaimed them. But the progress of this 
system raises several questions of immense impor- 
tance. One of these respects the peculiar type of 
piety which it developes. On that question I do 
not propose to enter. Another question touches the 
elements of its power. It might be clearly shown, 
as I humbly conceive, that its past success is to be 
referred not to those doctrines which are peculiar to 
itself, but to those which are common to both theo- 
logies ; not to its denials respecting election, effica- 
cious grace, and perseverance, but to its utterance 
concerning original sin, justification, and regenera- 
tion. 

A third inquiry relates to the continued and fu- 
ture efficiency of modern Arminianism. Is it a per- 
manent, redeeming power on earth ? On this part 
of the case I take leave, without intending any thing 
disrespectful towards brethren of other persuasions, 
to make a few suggestions. 

It is now only a few years over a century since 
Wesley began his career. A religious system ma- 
tures slowly. The truths asserted may, for a long 



404 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

period, hold in check the serious errors with which 
they are combined. The errors, if not eliminated, 
will at last work out the dissolution of the system. 
It may indeed outlast many generations, but what are 
even ages to the life of a true, permanent theology ? 
It is to be remembered, also, that the Arminian 
scheme has yet to be reduced to a systematic and 
logical form. Where are its written formularies, 
pushing boldly forth, to their final and inevitable 
conclusions, all its doctrines touching predestination, 
free-will, and efficacious grace ? We have its brief 
and informal creed in some five-and-twenty articles; 
but where is its complete confession of faith in thirty 
or forty chapters ? Where is its larger catechism ? 
Nav, where is even its shorter catechism ? Where 
is its whole body of divinity, from under the hand 
of a master, sharply defining its terms, accurately 
stating its belief, laying down the conclusions logi- 
cally involved therein, trying these conclusions no 
less than their premises by the Word of God, refut- 
ing objections, and adjusting all its parts into con- 
sistent and systematic whole ?* It has furnished us 
indeed with some detached negations and philoso- 

* Without disparaging the ability displayed in the " Theological 
Institutes" of the eminent Wesleyan divine, Richard Watson, we 
may suggest, that the points at issue between the Arminian theo- 
logy and our own, are not discussed in that work with the tho- 
roughness, the rigid and penetrating analysis, and the scientific 
order which are displayed in other parts of the book, and which 
are demanded at the present time. Of the Catechisms No. I. and 
No. II., " compiled and published by the British Conference," 
we may remark, that these manuals contain few allusions, much 
less any explicit and dogmatic propositions, touching debated 
points, corresponding to Questions and Answers 20, 30, 36, etc., in 
our Shorter Catechism. 



405 

pineal theories. We have, for example, its flat de- 
nial of our doctrine of predestination ; but has it to 
this day met, for itself, the problem of foreknowledge 
infinite by a more plausible solution than the cele- 
brated sophism, that although God has the capacity 
of foreknowing all things, he chooses to foreknow 
only some things ? We have, also, its notion of the 
freedom of the will, wherein there was supposed to 
be the germ of a systematic Arminianism ; but this 
budding promise was long since nipped by the un- 
timely frost of Jonathan Edwards' logic. It is clear 
that an exposition of this theology, which shall sat- 
isfy the logical consciousness, is indispensable to its 
perpetuity ; otherwise it cannot take possession of 
educated and disciplined minds — educated by the 
Word and Spirit of God, and disciplined to exact 
analysis and argument; otherwise, again, although 
it may exert a temporary influence, it will retire be- 
fore advancing spiritual and intellectual culture. It 
is also clear that the first century of its existence has 
not produced that exposition. Another century may 
demonstrate that such a production is impossible, by 
showing that the logical and scriptural element is not 
in the Arminian system; that the law of affinity and 
chrystallization is wanting to its disjointed princi- 
ples ; that this theology, combining many precious 
truths, and many capital errors, resembles a mingled 
mass of diamonds and fragments of broken glass and 
broken pottery, which no plastic skill of man or 
power of fire can mould into a single transparent, 
unclouded, many-sided, equal-sided crystal, its angles 
all beaming, and its points all burning with light — 
a Kohinoor indeed ! 



406 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

Again, it is to be seen whether this divinity has 
not, on the one hand, an inherent tendency to pre- 
lacy, as in the Anglican Church, and on the other, 
an inherent repugnance to the popular element — the 
representation of the people in church assemblies — 
as in the Wesleyan societies in England and this 
country. If the case be so, we must be permitted 
to doubt both its soundness and its permanency. 

Still further, it remains to be determined whether 
this divinity can abide any great day of trial. Are 
its vital energies equal to such a work for God as 
was accomplished by another theology between the 
birth of John Calvin and that of James Arminius ? 
Could it survive such a century of ceaseless strug- 
gles as that which culminated in the English revo- 
lution ? Not only surviving itself, could it uphold 
a great nation through every terrible convulsion ; 
every exterminating war and treacherous peace ; its 
bow abiding in strength ; its quiver ever full ; smel- 
ling the battle afar off, with the thunder of the cap- 
tains and the shouting ; lifting its brow and its war- 
cry undaunted in the dreadful array ; its chariot 
plunging into the thickest of the fight, and yet bear- 
ing aloft, flaming and unextinguished, its two sacred 
torches — even the truth, man's heritage in the 
Church, and liberty, his heritage in the State ? And 
then is that theology equal to the task of exiling 
itself to another and distant continent, planting there 
two new commonwealths, the spiritual and the civil, 
both free, each separate from the other, and each in- 
dependent of every power on earth besides ; pene- 
trating the vast interior ; founding powerful States 
and prosperous churches under every latitude, from 



407 

the frozen to the burning zone, and under every me- 
ridian, from our own resounding sea to the golden 
shores of the West ? Let the future age solve these 
momentous problems, and with them every question, 
touching both the Arminian theology and our own, 
as permanent or transient, as vital or decaying. 

Here we close our inquiries into the developments 
of our theology. But before retiring from this vast 
and unexhausted theme, we should give attention to 
some reflections suggested both by our subject and 
the present occasion. The teaching and ruling Pres- 
byters, in whose presence I stand, are about to con- 
stitute the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church. To this judicature belong high spiritual 
powers, and its deliberations are of subjects infinitely 
momentous. Yet the most of these may be reduced 
to three general issues ; and I take leave, in the 
close of this discourse, to indicate the bearings of 
our subject on each of these. 

It belongs to the General Assembly, in the first 
place, to conserve the accepted theology of the Church. 
The results of the foregoing discussion apply with 
irresistible force to this part of our official duty. 
What are the fruits of this theology? At least 
these seven : an exalted type of spiritual life, a free 
church polity, a simple and spiritual method of wor- 
ship, high intellectual vigour, civil liberty, the pa- 
tience of martyrs and confessors, and the force of an 
expanding and aggressive Christianity. From each 
of these particulars springs an argument, pleading 
with us, most persuasively, to contend earnestly for 
the faith once delivered unto the saints. Each of 
these is a blessing and a heritage, and, taken together, 



408 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

they compose our whole heritage of blessings. Our 
love for the fruitage must measure our zeal in be- 
half of the parent stock. Let it come into the ears 
of all men, every where, that we cannot give up our 
theology ; we can spare none of its peculiarities, not 
one of its "five points;" no, not one. We are jeal- 
ous even for the terms in which its truths are con- 
veyed. When the discourse is of our relation to the 
sin of Adam, we retain the word imputation, even 
with the guilt it implies, lest we lose the word, and, 
with the word, the blessing it speaks of when we 
describe the righteousness of Christ. We keep our 
hold upon the terms guilt, condemnation, and pun- 
ishment, lest we lose our hold upon the terms right- 
eousness, justification, and propitiation. We adhere 
to the expression "original sin," lest men conclude 
that the phrase having disappeared from our ser- 
mons, the thing has ceased out of their hearts. 
These terms may be condemned as antiquated, but 
they express ancient truths. An old oaken, iron- 
bound casket is quite suitable to the crown jewels 
of the oldest kingdom on earth, of truth and right- 
eousness. 

It belongs, secondly, to this supreme tribunal to 
cherish the spiritual life of the Church. 

We should ever bear in mind that vital piety is 
of the very substance of faith in our theology. The 
assent of the understanding to our doctrines, as clear 
deductions from the Word, is not necessarily a faith 
in the doctrines themselves; it may be no more 
than a faith in the processes of an impregnable logic. 
We are not saved by receiving our catechisms as 
true, ncr even by believing in justification by faith, 



P. HUMPHREY, D D. 400 



but by believing in Christ. Ours is the high office 
to conserve our theology ; but this we can do in no 
other way than by cherishing in the Church the 
spirit of genuine and unaffected piety. We should 
give earnest heed that we do not allow other senti- 
ments to take the place of that in our hearts. Let 
us beware of the Churchmanship, which is the token 
of bigotry, as distinguished from the charity which 
is the bond of perfectness. A selfish love of the 
Church, as our Church, is possible ; an unholy pride 
in its numbers, and learning, and wealth, and influ- 
ence, and moral power, is possible ; liberality to our 
Boards, because they enlarge our borders, and so 
give greater consequence to ourselves, as Presbyte- 
rians, is possible ; a zeal for our polity as merely 
republican and free, while it is compact and phalanx- 
like, is possible ; nay, these are sins that do easily 
beset.' Let our theology teach us better things than 
these. Let it plant in our hearts that sweet and 
blessed mystery, the life that is hidden with Christ 
in God. Let it move us to cherish, in all our com- 
municants, the divine life, which shall lead them to 
abhor their sins, to cleave to the Saviour, to frequent 
the closet and the family altar, to love the house of 
prayer and the communion of the saints — a life 
which shall generate in their bosoms an intelligent, 
perpetual zeal for the honour of God in the salvation 
of souls — a life which shall thirst after God, even 
the living God. 

Our subject enforces, not less powerfully, the third 
great duty laid on this high judicatory, even the duty 
of giving to the Gospel the ividest possible extension. 
We have seen that our Church derives from its 



410 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

theology the capacities of a free, rapid, and world 
wide expansion. But why does riot the Church 
experience such an expansion ? It has accomplished 
something ; why has it not done immeasurably more 
for the cause of the Master? Through its four 
Boards, it has given no small extension to the truth 
at home and abroad; why has it not planted ten 
churches in this country where now there is only 
one; and why has it not preached the Gospel in 
every land, yea, to every creature under heaven? 
"Whether we measure the spiritual forces with which 
our doctrines are clothed, or trace out their proper 
developments, or examine the history of their 
achievements, we are conducted to the humiliating, 
but certain conclusion, that the energies now dor- 
mant in our church immensely exceed those that 
are in action. We seem to resemble, by a strange 
anomaly, both the faithful and the unfaithful ser- 
vant in the parable ; the faithful, to whom the Mas- 
ter gave the ten pounds, and the unfaithful, who 
went and hid his Lord's money. 

The question forces itself upon our consciences, 
why does not a church, which rests on such a foun- 
dation, fulfil more perfectly its office? Let the 
judgment, which this inquiry brings to the house of 
God, begin at the pulpit. Does the ministry faith- 
fully preach our peculiar doctrines? It has been 
thought that such preaching is uninteresting to the 
hearers ; or if not wearisome, disbelieved ; or if not 
rejected, unpopular ; or if not unpopular, practically 
powerless. But what injurious mistakes are these ! 
Our doctrines uninteresting? When clearly ex- 
pounded, they compel the attention of men. In- 



411 

credible ? They master the understanding of not a 
few by the force of a complete and irresistible dem- 
onstration. Unpopular? They are endowed with 
a sort of fascination, constraining those who heard 
them yesterday with fixed aversion, to hear them 
to-day with profound attention. This preaching 
powerless ? Let no man say that within the pre- 
cincts of a church which has gathered into a single 
grave yard the ashes of Samuel Davies, Archibald 
Alexander, and Jonathan Edwards ; the first mem- 
orable for the awakening power of his sermons ; the 
second trying the spirits and discerning even the 
thoughts of our rising ministry; and the third 
preaching a sermon on the doctrine of election, 
which was mighty in the conversion of sinners, and 
delivering another, so instinct with the terrors of the 
Lord as to bring his audience to their feet, and com- 
pel the preacher, who sat behind him in the pulpit, 
to start up with the exclamation, u Mr. Edwards, 
Mr. Edwards, is not God merciful too ?" The sep- 
ulchres of these men are with us until this day, 
and so is their theology; but where the spirit of 
profound meditation and importunate prayer with 
which they prepared their sermons? Where is 
their vehemency and tenderness of utterance? 
Where their annihilating reply to the disputers of 
this world, their masterly appeal to the understand- 
ing, and their onset on the conscience ? 

And then let the judgment pass to our ruling 
elders and deacons, to all our two hundred thousand 
communicants, men, women, parents, children, mas- 
ters, servants, all. Where are the people who are 
mighty in prayer, full of faith and the Holy Ghost ? 



412 THE TEEE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

Why are revivals of religion rather diminishing, 
than multiplying, in frequency and power? Who 
among the rich give heed to the apostolical charge 
to " do good, to be rich in good works, ready to dis- 
tribute, willing to communicate ?" Who among the 
poor imitate her example, which is spoken of in all 
the world where this gospel is preached? Why 
does our Board of Foreign Missions entreat the 
Church in vain to send the bread of life to starving 
millions ? Why is our Board of Domestic Missions 
fainting under pecuniary embarrassments in the very 
heat and stress of its great work? Why is our 
Board of Education suffered to deplore, from year 
to year, the want of candidates for the sacred office ? 
Why does not our Board of Publication expound 
and vindicate our faith in every mansion in the city, 
and in every log cabin in the wilderness ? Here is 
our theology, not only embalmed in our standards, 
but received into our hearts. Here are its forces 
and its developments, many and mighty. Here are 
ministers and churches, and missions and schools, 
and colleges and seminaries of sacred learning. Here 
are all the elements of a redeeming power on earth, 
a paramount, permanent, expanding power. Why 
do we fail to realize its efficacy ? 

This venerable court of Jesus Christ is, by divine 
appointment, the tribunal to which such inquiries 
belong. And not less appropriate to them is the 
place of its present deliberations. Nearly one hun- 
dred and sixty-seven years ago, the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantz drove from the kingdom of France 
more than five hundred thousand Huguenots. They 
fled to all the Protestant States of Europe, to Eng- 



E. P. HUMPHREY, D. D. 413 

land, to the Cape of Good Hope, and to the shores 
of the Western Continent. Invited by the genial 
climate of the South to the infant colony of Caro- 
lina, large numbers of these exiled people of God 
found rest, some on the borders of the San tee, and 
others on the banks of the Cooper river. The latter 
company built their house of worship in a little vil- 
lage, a few miles distant, called Charleston. Thither, 
on the Lord's day, they were borne on the bosom 
of the river, by the gentle flow of its waters, or the 
motion of the oar, or the ebbing of the tide. In 
their forest homes, and in their humble sanctuary, 
they wept for joy as the voice of their supplications 
and the melody of their songs, rising upon the tran- 
quil and fragrant air, stood contrasted with the car- 
nage and terror from which they had fled. This is 
the ancient Carolina. This, too, is Charleston. Near 
us is the site of their first house of prayer. Yonder 
is the Cooper river. There are the fields in which 
they set up their dwellings and domestic altars. 
There the rich and odorous vegetation of the early 
summer repeats for us the life it lived for them. 
Around us lies their dust, awaiting the resurrection 
to meet their kindred dust, as that too shall rise 
from the graves of murdered saints bevond the seas. 
Here, in this presence, are their children. The 
blood which moistened the beautiful valleys of Lan- 
guedoc and Tours, which stained the waters of every 
river, and the pavements of every city, from the 
English Channel to the Mediterranean, now runs in 
the veins of those with whom we worship God this 
morning. With what unanimity these adhere to 
that ancient faith, a stranger may not presume to 



414 THE TREE KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 

inquire. But they are our witnesses, this day, that 
in faith, order and worship, our Church is identical 
with their own ancestral Church in its pure and 
heroic day. Not these alone; for here are they 
also, whose fathers brought hither, many genera- 
tions ago, the living and fruit-bearing stock of Pres- 
byterianism. Let these, our own brethren, par- 
takers with us of the root and fatness of the olive 
tree, and let believers of every name, and them who 
believe not, discover in our proceedings, and in us, 
no spirit of contention, or uncharitableness, or evil- 
speaking. May they see nothing in this august 
council but a pious zeal for the theology, the spi- 
rituality, and the extension of the Church, and for 
the glory of its Eternal King. 

Now, fathers and brethren, the God of peace that 
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that 
great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of 
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every 
good work, to do his will, working in you that which 
is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, 
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 



THE END. 



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